British Boxing Is Filling Its Biggest Weight Gap With A New 187lb Division

[Training Loft]

British boxing has decided that the jump from light heavyweight to cruiserweight has become too big to ignore. From 1 January 2027, the British Boxing Board of Control will introduce a new Light Cruiserweight division with a championship limit of 187lb (13st 5lb).

The new category will sit directly between light heavyweight at 175lb and cruiserweight at 200lb, splitting what is currently the largest weight gap between two divisions in professional boxing. For fighters who have outgrown light heavyweight but do not naturally fit at the top end of cruiserweight, it could create a useful new route through the British championship system.

The change did not come out of nowhere. The idea was initially put forward by British trainer Pat Barrett, with leading trainers including Joe Gallagher, Adam Booth, Andy Lee, Jamie Moore and Robert McCracken also backing the case for an extra division.

The reasoning becomes clear when you look at the numbers. A boxer moving up from light heavyweight currently goes from a 175lb limit to a cruiserweight division that extends to 200lb, creating a 25lb jump. Light Cruiserweight will place a new championship limit almost exactly between the two at 187lb.

The timing makes the announcement particularly interesting. On 19 September, just four days after the new division was announced, unbeaten British cruiserweights John Hedges and Pat Brown will meet at Manchester’s Co-op Live for the vacant British and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles. Their fight remains part of the existing cruiserweight structure, but from next year British fighters operating between the traditional divisions will have another domestic championship route available.

For now, Light Cruiserweight will be a British development rather than a new worldwide weight class. The BBBofC is making the division available for Area, English, Celtic and British titles, while the major international sanctioning organisations continue to use their existing weight structures.

That makes Britain an interesting testing ground for the 187lb idea. Instead of immediately adding another world championship, the new division will first have the chance to establish itself through domestic boxing, where its success can be judged by how many fighters compete at the weight and what kind of championship contests develop.

Boxing’s weight structure has changed many times throughout the sport’s history, and Light Cruiserweight is another attempt to give fighters more suitable competitive options. Whether 187lb eventually remains a distinctly British category or inspires similar changes elsewhere will only become clear once fighters actually start competing for the new titles in 2027.

For British boxers sitting awkwardly between 175lb and 200lb, however, there will soon be another choice.

What do you think? Does 187lb fill a genuine gap in boxing’s current weight divisions?