By Kurt Ward

On March 31, 1980 American TV network ABC covered four world championship fights from three different locations (Larry Holmes facing Leroy Jones from Nevada, Sugar Ray Leonard against Dave Green from Maryland and two fights from Knoxville as John Tate challenged Mike Weaver, and Marvin Johnson went up against Eddie Mustafa Muhammad).

On the Vegas card, along with Thomas Hearns and Alexis Arguello, was a WBC title rematch of a controversial draw which had taken place in modern day Croatia—then Yugosalvia—three months prior.  This rematch wouldn't be shown on TV yet it is this bout that would secure Marvin Camel's name in history.

On that night in Vegas Camel defeated Mate Parlov over 15 rounds to become the first ever champion of a brand new division in the sport of boxing.  A division where men who were too small to compete at heavyweight and too big to campaign at light heavyweight could have a chance to realise their dreams.

Their weight limit would be 190lbs and they would be called cruiserweights.

Camel would lose his WBC title in his first defence (against Carlos De Leon on the Duran/Leonard II undercard) but he wasn't finished just yet.  Three years after the first WBC Cruiserweight title fight, the recently created International Boxing Federation (IBF) decided to get involved, and, they too, would sanction a Cruiserweight bout for their title (The WBA would recognise the new division in early '82 with Ossie Ocasio becoming their champion). 

The first ever IBF Cruiserweight title fight took place on December 13, 1983 and pitted Roddy McDonald against a certain Marvin Camel.  Just like he did against Parlov three years earlier, Camel would come out with a victory and, for the second time, become the inaugural champion of a recognised boxing organisation in the recently created Cruiserweight division.

Sadly for Camel history would be repeated and he would lose his title in his very first defence, but there can be only one person who started it all and, for the Cruiserweight division, Marvin Camel, who retired in 1990 with a record of 45-13-4 (21 KOs), was that man.

Eight years after Camel's victory over Parlov the division would crown its first ever undisputed champion when, on April 9, 1988, Evander Holyfield, in his last fight at 190lbs and two years away from lifting the undisputed Heavyweight crown, stopped Carlos De Leon in the eighth round of their fight from Las Vegas.

Since those early years, with Camel, De Leon and Holyfield, the Cruiserweight division, much like its Heavyweight equivalent, has drifted away from the United States and the American television networks, with many of the champions now hailing from Europe and nearly all world title fights taking place there.

In the last five years, for example, the four major governing bodies (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO) have sanctioned 40 world title fights with only four of them taking place on American soil.

This stat, added to the line of men who have abandoned the division in search of bigger riches in the history soaked heavyweight division, has left many fans, unfairly in this writer's opinion, to view the cruiseweight division as a red-headed stepchild in a sport loaded with too many divisions.  A kind of no man's land for men who can't compete in the historic light-heavyweight division, created over 100 years ago, while looked upon as being too small to step up and take on the giants who now occupy the weight class above.

When speaking on the Nuthouse boxing podcast I asked former two-time cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham—who had just chosen to ply his trade as a heavyweight—for his views on the apparent lack of respect the division receives.  "I was a two-time cruiserweight champ", said Cunningham, "and I had open workouts in Philly and there was only four or five people there.  But now I'm a heavyweight the gym is packed—it's crowded.  There's just something about the word heavyweight."

The Philly native should know.  In Cunningham's eight world title fights only his bout with Tomasz Adamek took place on American soil, and even on that night the American had the crowd against him as Adamek, a Polish native, had based himself in New Jersey and had become a big ticket seller.

In 2003 the Cruiserweight limit was increased to 200lbs.  Heavyweights were generally getting bigger and the days of heavyweights weighing in the 190's was a thing of the past (unless you're Roy Jones, that is).  Increasing the limit gave smaller heavyweights, who could not get down to 190lbs, a new chance at competing against men of a similar size.  That was the theory, anyway.

Adamek, while viewed as the premier cruiserweight on the planet, decided to give up his position and go in search of the bigger prizes in the heavyweight division at the end of 2009.  This was only a year after England's David Haye, after collecting three world title belts, did the same thing.

Evander Holyfield had been undisputed champion, but wanted to make serious money so the move up was an obvious one.  There lies the problem that many fans have with the division.  It's seen simply as stop-gap for the elite of the division as they prepare for the trip north, while the one's that do stick around are either viewed as not being good enough or simply not ambitious enough to try their hand in a division with all the history and glamour on its side.

Much like the heavyweights, it would be great to see more top level American talent coming through and competing with the very best.  Bringing fights to America and having the bouts showcased on the American TV networks.  As it stands, the two divisions are largely dominated by European fighters.

Despite the apparent lack of American interest in the division, however, three of the greatest cruiserweight fights have actually taken place in the country.  The first, between Evander Holyfield and Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986 is an absolute classic fought at an incredible pace for 15 unforgettable rounds.  The second was former middleweight and super-middleweight champion James Toney taking on the unbeaten Vassily Jirov in a fight where almost 2,000 punches were thrown.  It was rightfully awarded the 2003 fight of the year by the boxing writers association on America.  Last, but not least, was the fight between Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck and Jamaican O'Neil Bell at Madison Square Garden to decide the only other undisputed cruiserweight champion in history.

All three are must watch classics.  There have been plenty others over the years with two of my favourites being Denis Lebedev's brutal clash with Guillermo Jones in 2013 and a great under the radar gem from England in 2001 when England's Carl Thompson goes to war with American Ezra Sellers.

Give them all a watch and maybe you, too, will become a fan of the much criticised, often neglected, but massively under-appreciated cruiserweight division.

Contact Kurt on Twitter @BoxingAsylum and hear him and his fellow panellists live every Sunday at 8.30pm GMT/4.30pm EST for the nuthouse boxing podcast