  Perfect matchings and maximum weight matchings are two fundamental
combinatorial structures. We consider the ratio between the maximum weight of a
perfect matching and the maximum weight of a general matching. Motivated by the
computer graphics application in triangle meshes, where we seek to convert a
triangulation into a quadrangulation by merging pairs of adjacent triangles, we
focus mainly on bridgeless cubic graphs. First, we characterize graphs that
attain the extreme ratios. Second, we present a lower bound for all bridgeless
cubic graphs. Third, we present upper bounds for subclasses of bridgeless cubic
graphs, most of which are shown to be tight. Additionally, we present tight
bounds for the class of regular bipartite graphs.
