An agreed weight was used to describe a catchweight traditionally when only eight-division limits existed and all weigh-ins were done "day or hours" before the fight.
A historical marker that points to when "day of" fight weigh-ins ended is the advent of television.
[3] The purpose of a catchweight is to compensate for the ability of bigger boxers to cut weight before a "day before" fight weigh-in and regain the weight to exceed the specified limit (division or catchweight) on the "day of" the fight with little effect on performance.
The catchweight aims to provide a level playing field and to prevent weight mismatches that can endanger the fighters.
A notable case of alleged weight mismatch is Arturo Gatti vs. Joey Gamache.
Cases can arise when a fight does not occur within a specific weight class limit.
An example of this catchweight situation occurred at UFC 104 where Anthony Johnson came in over the welterweight limit of 170 for his fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida.
[6] Another example was at UFC 99 when Wanderlei Silva fought Rich Franklin at a catchweight bout of 195 pounds.