Where does the term welterweight come from?

Question

In most combat sports, the athletes are grouped into weight classes with ridiculous names such as welterweight, flyweight, and bantomweight. Does anyone know where these names originated or who made them up? Obviously heavyweight, middleweight, and lightweight make sense but many of the rest don't. Please help!

Answer 1

Well, bantam means chicken.  So it's kind of a low weight.  Also, flyweight, that's the insect... a fly.  There is also featherweight, feather as in bird "hair".  That is really low in weight.  But I'm curious about welter. I don't know what that means.

Answer 2

maybe its latin or canadian....

Answer 3

WELTER- no one is really sure were the word came from but some say it came from the word welt meaning a ridge or wale on the surface of the body, as from a blow.

BANTAM- a small and feisty or quarrelsome person.

FLY-Something that is particularly small, light, or inconsequential.