In February 1909, the National Sporting Club of London, then the most prestigious and powerful venue and promotional body in the world of professional boxing, issued a list of weight divisions in which it would issue Championship Challenge Belts to winners of British title bouts held at the N.S.C. The divisions were as follows: Flyweight [eight stone (112 pounds)], Bantamweight [eight stone, six pounds (118)], Featherweight [nine stone (126)], Lightweight [nine stone, nine pounds (135)], Welterweight [10 stone, seven pounds (147)], Middleweight [11 stone, six pounds (160)], Light Heavyweight [12 stone, seven pounds 9175)], and Heavyweight [No limit].
It marked the first time that weight limits by one body for all divisions were set forth at one and the same time. The weights were soon adopted throughout the British Empire, and by the French-dominated International Boxing Union of Europe within the next few years. New York’s new Walker Law Commission followed suit in 1920, and the weight limits were “universally recognized” when the newly formed National Boxing Association (made up of every U.S. commission except New York) was organized the following year. New divisions (variously called “junior,” “super.” etc.) have been added, but the eight “traditional” weight classes have remained at the same levels all these years.
One of boxing’s “never-say-die” legends is that bantamweight was the lightest weight class prior to the National Sporting Club’s 1909 designations. But it simply is not so.
The “paperweight” division had existed since the 1880s. A minor weight division at that juncture, to be sure, its weight limit was a microscopic 95 pounds – making it the lightest adult weight class in professional boxing history. At that time, the bantamweights were 105, the featherweights 115, and another, apparently nameless division, existed at 124-126.
Here’s what happened: World bantamweight champion Tommy (Spider) Kelly agreed to 110 for his defense against Britain’s Billy Plimmer in 1892, World featherweight king George Dixon increased that class from 115 to 118, and world 126-pound champion Young Griffo tried to take the weight of his class to 130. The next steps came when Billy Plimmer having beaten Kelly, took the bantam limit to 112, and his successor Pedlar Palmer, lifted it to 116 with the National Sporting Club’s blessings. Dixon then defended the featherweight title at 122, while the rapidly expanding Griffo just declared himself a lightweight.
So, the old 124-126 pound championship passed out of existence, the featherweight division came up to replace it, and the bantams came up to one pound above where the featherweight had been, The paperweights now moved up, too – to 100 and then to 105, exactly where the bantamweights had been five years before.
Jimmy Barry of Chicago was the first notable paperweight (or “flyweight”), though American record books have misguidedly listed him as “bantamweight” champion. Barry who turned pro in 1891 following an amateur career won the 100-pound title with a 17th round knockout over Jack Levy on December 5, 1893. This bout, fought with skin tight gloves, was held in the small town of Roby, Indiana.
The following September (1894), Barry took on Casper Leon, an Italian from New York with a huge following, and knocked him out in the 28th round of a presumably “finish” fight in Lamont, Illinois, a small town some 20 miles southwest of Chicago. This win firmly established Barry as the American paperweight champion at 105 pounds. A return bout, in Chicago on May 30, 1895, was stopped by the police in round 14. (Boxing, you see, was quite illegal in most cities at this time.)
Barry faced Britain’s Walter Croot at London’s National Sporting Club on December 6, 1897 – a scheduled 20-rounder billed for the “7 stone, 12 pound (110 pound) title. Barry knocked out Croot in the final round, and Walter died as a result. Barry, exonerated, returned to the U.S., and defended his title in 20-round draws against Leon at the Lenox Athletic Club in New York on May 30, 1898 and Claus Groth Hall in Davenport, Iowa the following December 29. [Charley White refereed the former bout, Malachy Hogan the latter.] Barry then retired, but returned for a six rounder against Harry Harris in Chicago on September 1, 1899. The bout was called a draw – a gift to Barry, who was permitted to again retire, with his undefeated log intact.
Billy Plimmer and Thomas (Pedlar) Palmer were the world bantamweight champions during Barry’s paperweight title reign, at weights ranging from 112 to 116. Some American reference books still have Terry McGovern winning the vacant bantamweight title with a first round knockout over Palmer after the retirement of Barry, but Palmer was actually defending champion. Barry, it must once again be stressed, was a paperweight (or flyweight), not a bantam.
Willie Schumacher was called paperweight champ in the early 1900s, but no trace of when he won (or lost) the title has been found. Kid Murphy, and then Johnny Coulon, ruled the paperweight division from 1907 and 1910, when Coulon entered the bantamweight class. The history of the world paperweight championship then becomes the history of the flyweight championship, a subject covered in various reference works.
Goldman, Herb. 1996. International
Boxing Digest. IBRO, page 16, Oct 1996