light heavyweight
10
3.5
- noun
- /laɪt ˈhɛviˌweɪt/
- Specialized
:
peso semipesado
- He trained hard to compete in the light heavyweight division.
- light heavyweight champion
- light heavyweight title
- light heavyweight champ
What made you so convinced that you could move up from a light heavyweight to a heavyweight and win a title?
- What made you so convinced that you could move up from a light heavyweight to a heavyweight and win a title?
- He destroyed everybody at light heavyweight, which at the time was the toughest weight class in the company in the sport.
- Should have been a light heavyweight boxer.
- I mean, even Lenny had a, had a fight with a bloke called a light heavyweight called, what's his name now?
Examples
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When I was 19 years old, I was the number one light heavyweight champion in the Soviet Olympic boxing team.
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I want to be a heavyweight champion and a light heavyweight champion.
Blog text (5) -
The former light heavyweight champion of the world.
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You was a light heavyweight fighter in Chicago when I was a kid.
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After all of eight professional fights as a light heavyweight.
Fiction book (2001) -
No matter what happened in the Ward fight, you go up and defend your light heavyweight.
Blog text (3) -
Twelve rounds of boxing for the light heavyweight championship of the world.
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Tim "the Beaver" Carr wins the light heavyweight title.
Fiction book (2002) -
After beating Bonnar, he went on to become the UFC light heavyweight champion.
Blog text (13) -
And fighting out of the blue corner, wearing black with blue, with 36 fights, 28 KOs, he's the light heavyweight champion of the world, "Pretty" Ricky Conlan!
How Heavy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositional: 'light' modifies 'heavyweight' to indicate a lighter version of the heavyweight class, so the meaning (a weight class between middleweight and heavyweight) follows directly from the constituent words. This sports-naming pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows 'light' and 'heavyweight' can reliably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The compound light heavyweight comes from boxing and other fight sports. It joins light (not as heavy) and heavyweight (the very heavy group) to name fighters who are 'heavier than middleweight but lighter than heavyweight', so the phrase means the weight class between middleweight and heavyweight.