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light middleweight

light middleweight

1 5.3
A boxing weight division for fighters between welterweight and middleweight, up to 156 pounds or 71 kg
  • noun
  • /laɪt ˈmɪdəlˌweɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : peso ligero
  • Light middleweight.
  • light middleweight (156 pounds)
  • light middleweight (156 pounds)

Examples

  • This no-belt lower-weight fight accepting pretender needs to prove he is worthy of a shot at the best welterweight in the world and possibly the best light middleweight in the world.

    Blog text (23)
  • Trout wins by majority decision after cutting up Cotto, who has not got big power at light middleweight.

    Blog text (23)
  • Because a name was needed when it became certain that the boxer was going to be flown to the casino on the Indian reservation in Connecticut for a UBA preliminary light-middleweight event, which would be televised on HBO, no less.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • What got Yusaf into boxing: his brother Stevie Mack (a light middleweight from the 1980s), his father, and his trainer Percy (aka Buster) Custus.

    Blog text (29)
  • David Reid won a gold medal in the light middleweight division at the Olympics.

  • He recently moved up to the light middleweight class after gaining weight from his training.

  • As a skilled boxer, she aims to become the champion in the light middleweight category.

Synonyms

junior middleweight
vslight middleweight
  • Specialized
1 6.4

A boxer in a weight class with a limit of 154 pounds or 70 kilograms

has a slightly higher upper limit of 156 pounds placing it above that division

Surface Forms

Morphology

light + middleweight

The compound is transparently compositional: 'light' modifies 'middleweight' to indicate a lighter version of the middleweight category, so the overall meaning is directly derivable from the constituents. This modifier+noun pattern for weight classes is cross-linguistically common and, given knowledge of 'light' and 'middleweight', a B1 learner can infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Light middleweight comes from boxing and simply names a weight group between two others. The word middleweight means a fighter of medium weight and adding light shows this group is the lighter version, so it means 'a weight class for fighters heavier than welterweights but lighter than middleweights'.