Super Bantamweight Explained: The 122-Pound Division

Super bantamweight is professional boxing’s 122-pound division, also called junior featherweight. Its upper limit is approximately 55.34 kg. It sits between bantamweight at 118 pounds and featherweight at 126—not to be confused with super flyweight, the 115-pound division. Washington’s boxing regulations use “super bantamweight” for the over-118-to-122-pound category; the WBO calls its 122-pound category “Jr. Featherweight.” Washington weight-class rules; WBO championship regulations, Section 3.

Where super bantamweight fits

Division	Maximum weight	Approximate metric equivalent
Bantamweight	118 lb	53.52 kg
Super bantamweight / junior featherweight	122 lb	55.34 kg
Featherweight	126 lb	57.15 kg

These limits appear in the WBO’s weight-category table. Moving from bantamweight to super bantamweight raises the ceiling by four pounds; moving from super bantamweight to featherweight adds another four. The names describe neighboring divisions, not different grades of championship.

The WBA also lists women’s super bantamweight at 122 pounds. The shared weight limit does not establish the bout’s scheduled length: check the actual contest conditions rather than assuming every 122-pound fight lasts 12 rounds. WBA rules, Chapter G.

For the wider sequence, see our boxing weight divisions in order.

Making weight and winning the title are separate questions

For a championship contest, the official weigh-in is consequential. A boxer who weighs 122 pounds is at the division’s ceiling; 122.5 pounds is above it. Whether an overweight contest proceeds, and which boxer remains eligible for the title, depends on the applicable rules and ruling.

For example, Section 4 of the WBO’s published 2021 championship regulations gives an overweight champion or challenger two hours to make the prescribed weight. If the champion still fails, the title becomes vacant. A challenger who makes weight can then win it by winning the fight, but the overweight former champion cannot reclaim it through victory that night.

If the champion makes weight but the challenger still fails, the challenger cannot win the championship. Under these WBO rules, if that overweight challenger wins the fight, the title becomes vacant. WBO weight rules.

That distinction matters when reading a record: the fight result and championship status are separate facts. A victory alone does not prove that the winner acquired—or retained—a belt.

How a super bantamweight fight is scored

There is no special 122-pound scoring formula. The Association of Boxing Commissions’ professional judge manual uses the 10-point system: before any point deductions, the round winner receives 10, and the loser normally receives nine or fewer. It identifies four judging factors: clean and effective punching, effective aggressiveness, ring generalship/ring control and defense. ABC Boxing Judge Manual, revised June 2024.

Punch volume is not a substitute for those criteria. The manual says both the number and effect of punches matter, with no mathematical formula equating hard punches to lighter ones. Advancing while being countered is not automatically effective aggression, and simply avoiding action should not earn credit as ring control.

A routine winning round is 10–9. A knockdown commonly produces 10–8, but judges must assess the entire round; the manual also permits 10–8 for an extremely decisive round without a knockdown. ABC scoring guidance. For the mechanics, see how boxing’s 10-point must system works.

A real example: Rigondeaux–Donaire

On April 13, 2013, Guillermo Rigondeaux defeated Nonito Donaire by 12-round unanimous decision in their WBO/WBA junior featherweight title bout in New York. The WBO’s official result records three cards, all for Rigondeaux: 116–111, 115–112 and 114–113. WBO official result.

“Unanimous” means all three judges selected the same winner—not that they agreed on the margin. Here, their margins were five, three and one point. Donaire also knocked Rigondeaux down in round 10, as ESPN’s contemporary report records.

To understand the arithmetic, consider a hypothetical 12-round card with no point deductions: seven 10–9 rounds for Boxer A and five for Boxer B produce 115–113 for A. If one of B’s winning rounds is instead 10–8, A’s total drops by one, making it 114–113. This illustrates the math; it is not a reconstruction of an individual Rigondeaux–Donaire card.

The totals establish the official winner and each judge’s margin. To debate the judging itself, start with the disputed rounds and what each boxer did in them—not the division’s reputation, the crowd’s reaction or a whole-fight punch total.