Greatest Middleweights Ever: Revisited

[IronDanHamza]

That's a good list too but you know my opinion about ranking guys like Greb and Fitzsimmons and co. LOL but we've been over it so many times I own't start again.

Just a side note, I was very, very close to having Steele in my own list and just barely left him out.



The Jones question is an intriguing one. At first I had him nowhere near a top 15, let alone 20 but I looked into his mw career a bit more, I was too young to remember his fights pre-Hopkins, even the Hopkins fight I watched a few years later. Most of what I saw of Roy was what we all saw, the late 90s run at super middle and light heavy.

Dig a bit deeper and you find his career was a bit of a hidden gem at 160, he beat Vaca, who was a former ww champ and had beaten Honeyghan, who in his own right was a terrific fighter. Yes Jones came in above the contracted cw but the simple destruction of Vaca, who was 48-9 at the time, in a single round is impressive to say the least. Plus it was only RJJs 16th pro fight.

Then Jones beat Castro, a guy who would go on to beat Reggie Johnson for the WBA title and fight and go the distance with Jirov, a man who gave Toney hell. This is a young, 17-0 pro who is beating guys far more experienced and who are future or past world champs. Thomas is another solid win and then there's the big one, the almost complete out classing of Bernard Hopkins, barely dropping 2 or 3 rounds against a man who would become one of the greatest middleweights ever. I've never seen a fighter since Ali look so comfortable in their first ever title fight...Jones had a broken hand in this one too.

I just found all that too hard to ignore, a worthy top 20 160 pounder.

I know I know haha I see where you're coming from and I think you can see where I'm coming from, we just disagree.

We agree on a lot of names though

[Ham Porter]

That list is just awful.

Hagler, Hopkins and Monzon only had to win the middleweight title once and then defended it successfully many times without a loss.

Those are the perks of fighting in a mediocre (poor in Hopkins' case) era.

[Andyland]

Best middleweights

Your list is good.

SRR and Hagler were in many exciting fights.

Watching Monzon fight was like watching paint dry

[M0NZ0N]

Any middleweight list that has Monzon above Ray Robinson tells me the man at least did his homework. I agree that Ray Robinson is way above Monzon in a P4P sense, but only considering 160, Monzon is King.

[-Antonio-]

Ray Robinson is the most overrated Middleweight in history. I think it's because most of the footage we have of him is as a Middleweight, coupled with his historic KO of Fullmer. His win loss record is not great there and his opponents were overrated.

While he was still a very good Middleweight I always scratch my head when I see him ranked 1-3.

[New England]

Ray Robinson is the most overrated Middleweight in history. I think it's because most of the footage we have of him is as a Middleweight, coupled with his historic KO of Fullmer. His win loss record is not great there and his opponents were overrated.

While he was still a very good Middleweight I always scratch my head when I see him ranked 1-3.

part of why he may be overrated at MW also comes from teh fact that he was well over 100 fights into his career, and cemented his MW legacy after establishing himself as the best welterweight ever.

wins over fullmer, basilio, lamotta, olson, graziano, turpin, are certainly nothing to scoff at. i'm also probably missing some contenders at MW that robinson beat.

[MDPopescu]

Walker Smith Jr.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

SRR's middleweight run is similar to Ali's run in the 70s, where they are past prime but very capable and still beating the top guys,, Yes they lost some to Top guys as well, but were still the best of the era even on the downhill

[-Antonio-]

part of why he may be overrated at MW also comes from teh fact that he was well over 100 fights into his career, and cemented his MW legacy after establishing himself as the best welterweight ever.

wins over fullmer, basilio, lamotta, olson, graziano, turpin, are certainly nothing to scoff at. i'm also probably missing some contenders at MW that robinson beat.

You pretty much hit all of them.

His legacy at 140-147 is not in question, and he is a top Middleweight for sure. I still say he is the best of all time. On a p4p scale I don't think he's overrated a bit. I think that some of his opponents, namely Basilio and Lamotta are overrated because they beat an old or smaller SRR.

That's not taking into account the eye test. It's really hard to do these list because of that. Things were much different with fighters fighting multiple times a month and weighing in the day of.

The limited footage that I've seen of a guy like Greb is laughable. Boxing has evolved, athletes have evolved. He would be nothing more than a club fighter with that style.

[-Antonio-]

I would more compare SRR's Middleweight reign to Hopkins' Light Heavyweight reign.