It sure beats being called a lightweight.

A new Brookings analysis identifies Tampa Bay as one of 16 "American Middleweight" metros that make up a global mix of 123 large cities. The Washington, D.C., think tank sorted them into seven categories based on such competitive factors as their tradable economic clusters, innovation, talent and infrastructure connectivity.

The "Redefining Global Cities" analysis aims to assess the opportunities and challenges the metro areas may confront to power "the next wave of global economic growth."

Tampa Bay's "middleweight" tag feels pretty accurate. Other metros given the same label include Orlando, Miami and Charlotte, N.C., among others. These metros are basically the AAA teams trying to make it to the big league.

Not all will get the call.

In this country, the Brookings study cites two higher categories reserved for metros with more economic muscle and greater innovative firepower. At the top by sheer size are New York and Los Angeles, which Brookings labels "Global Giants." Only five such cities exist worldwide.

Then there is the sweet spot: the metro level Brookings calls the "knowledge capital."

This is what every aspiring middleweight metro like Tampa Bay wants to become. Brookings says knowledge capital cities are highly productive innovation centers with talented workforces and elite research universities.

"These regions are at the world's innovation frontier, and thus challenged constantly to generate new knowledge and ideas to sustain growth," write Brookings fellow Joseph Parilla and analyst Jesus Leal Trujillo.

There are 17 in the United States, two in Europe.

The Southeast boasts only one knowledge capital: Atlanta. But you would recognize others in the country — from Boston, Washington D.C., and San Jose, Calif., to Austin, Texas, and Denver. Other knowledge capitals might be less obvious, including Baltimore, Houston or Hartford, Conn.

Parilla said he was surprised by how many knowledge capitals are clustered in this country, and how much they "punched above their weight."

To attain the knowledge capital tier, Tampa Bay has to vastly raise its intellectual and innovation bar at the University of South Florida, as well as at the other private higher education schools in the area. Tampa Bay also must act smarter and engage more forcefully as a single region, especially on key topics like transportation, workforce quality and the creation of better jobs. All of this is happening. But it takes time, resources and commitment.

The question is whether Tampa Bay's progress is taking place coherently, with the leadership and vision to boost it to "knowledge capital" status before global competition makes that designation obsolete.

When will Tampa Bay start punching above its weight?

Contact Robert Trigaux at rtrigaux@tampabay.com. Follow @venturetampabay.