Openweight, also known as Absolute, is an unofficial

weight class Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Alte ...

combat sports A combat sport, or fighting sport, is a competitive contact sport that usually involves one-on-one combat. In many combat sports, a contestant wins by scoring more points than the opponent, submitting the opponent with a hold, disabling the oppo ...

and

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

. It refers to bouts where there is no weight limit and fighters with a dramatic difference in size can compete against each other. It is different from

catch weight A catchweight is a term used in combat sports, such as boxing or mixed martial arts, to describe a weight limit that does not adhere to the traditional limits for weight classes. In boxing, a catchweight is negotiated prior to weigh-ins, which ar ...

, where competitors agree to weigh in at a certain amount without an official weight class.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

The "Absolute" division has been a long staple of sports BJJ competition, it has been practiced since the beginning of the sport and it is covered by all major BJJ governing bodies such as

IBJJF The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) is a for-profit company that hosts several of the biggest Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) tournaments in the world, including the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, World No-Gi Championship, Pan Jiu ...

. All weight categories are welcome inside the Absolute Division and smaller competitors must rely on skill and techniques over larger opponents. The absolute category has also made its way to more general

submission grappling Submission wrestling, also known as Submission grappling, Submission fighting a form of competition and a general term for martial arts and combat sports that focus on clinch and ground fighting with the aim of obtaining a submission through the ...

competitions such as the ADCC and

NAGA Naga or NAGA may refer to: Mythology * Nāga, a serpentine deity or race in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions * Naga Kingdom, in the epic ''Mahabharata'' * Phaya Naga, mythical creatures believed to live in the Laotian stretch of the Mekong Ri ...

Lethwei

International Lethwei Federation Japan International Lethwei Federation Japan, also known as ILFJ, is a Japanese Lethwei promotion company with headquarters in Tokyo. History In 2016, the ILFJ acquired a ‘’Grade-A’’ promoter licence from the Myanmar Traditional Lethwei Fed ...

Dave Leduc Dave Leduc (born 13 December 1991) is a Canadian Lethwei fighter who competes in the World Lethwei Championship, where he is the former WLC Cruiserweight World Champion. He is also the undefeated Openweight Lethwei World Champion under tradit ...

is the Openweight Champion.

Mixed martial arts

The sport of

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incor ...

originally had no weight classes, and martial artists of different styles and sizes were drawn together to prove which martial art is most effective in unarmed situations. By the early 2000s, weight classes were introduced and became mandatory in many countries. However,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

became a bastion of openweight fights, nicknamed " freak show fights," with fighters such as

Ikuhisa Minowa is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler currently competing in IGF as . A professional MMA competitor since 1996, he was a longtime veteran of PRIDE and Pancrase and has also competed in other mixed martial arts promotions ...

and

Genki Sudo is a Japanese MMA fighter, singer, actor and politician who has been serving as a political independent in the House of Councillors since 2019. Between 1998 and 2006, Sudo was a professional athlete and then was in the entertainment industry fro ...

commonly facing much larger opponents. Not all open-weight fights were "freak shows" however,

PRIDE Fighting Championships PRIDE Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC, founded as KRS-Pride) was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion company. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts eve ...

organized in 2000 a two-night 16 fighters "Grand Prix" (tournament) called the Pride FC: Grand Prix 2000 with the objective of finding "the world's best fighter" and consisted with the top fighters at the time, from 75.75kg (167 lb)

Kazushi Sakuraba is a Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and submission wrestler, currently signed to Rizin Fighting Federation and Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was formerly one-half of the former GHC Tag Team Champions with Takashi Sugi ...

to 116 kg (255 lb) Mark Kerr. PRIDE did again an open-weight tournament in 2006 with the Pride FC: Grand Prix 2006 which was divided in three separate events instead. The openweight division in mixed martial arts (MMA) generally groups fighters above 265 lb (120.2 kg). Road FC currently has an openweight division. Pancrase originally had a super heavyweight division; it was abolished and incorporated into the unlimited division. Deep currently has an openweight division called "Megaton" although the first champion was Yusuke Kawaguchi, who weighed less than 100 kg. The Japan-based mixed martial arts promotion and sanctioning organization

ZST ZST (pronounced ''Zest'') is a Japan-based mixed martial arts promotion and sanctioning organization holding amateur and semi-professional MMA events. ZST adopts unique rules in the MMA industry and also used to hold tag-team MMA matches. Histo ...

has an openweight division.

Dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

, now defunct, had an openweight division with tournaments called "Super Hulk Tournament - World Superhuman Championship".

Professional Champions

Current Champions

This table is not always up to date. Last updated on January 17, 2018.

Professional wrestling

There are many Open-weight tournament transfers in professional wrestling. Some wrestling promotions have officially designated Openweight Championships ( IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship, GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship,

NEVER Openweight Championship The is a professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. NEVER is an acronym of the terms "New Blood", "Evolution", "Valiantly", "Eternal", and "Radical" and was an NJPW-promoted series of events, whi ...

KO-D Openweight Championship The is a professional wrestling world openweight championship and the top singles accomplishment in the Japanese promotion CyberFight currently defended in the DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) brand division. It is one of CyberFight's top major world ti ...

MLW National Openweight Championship The MLW National Openweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion Major League Wrestling (MLW). The title was unveiled on April 18, 2019. The title's openwei ...

) while other promotions ignore weight classes to the point that most, if not all of their championships are effectively openweight. For example, the

WWE Championship The WWE Championship is a World championship (professional wrestling), world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, representing the Raw (WWE brand), Raw WWE brand extension, brand di ...

, traditionally promoted as a heavyweight title, has been held by wrestlers billed as weighing as little as 175 lbs., well below the traditional minimum weight for a wrestler to be classed as a heavyweight.

Judo

Judo has held the

World Judo Open Championships The World Judo Championships are the highest level of international judo competition, along with the Olympic judo competition. The championships are held once every year (except the years when the Olympics take place) by the International Judo ...

where judoka from different weight classes can compete.

Sumo

In amateur and international

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a '' rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring ('' dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by t ...

events, as sanctioned by the International Sumo Federation, openweight competitions exist alongside 3-4 weight class competitions. In professional sumo, as organized by the

Japan Sumo Association The is the body that operates and controls professional sumo wrestling (called ''Ōzumō'', 大相撲) in Japan under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). '' Rikishi'' (active ...

, there are no weight classes and thus is ''de facto'' openweight only.

References

External links

{{MMA weight classes Mixed martial arts weight classes Weight classes Professional wrestling weight classes