By Rick Reeno
The middleweight division, thought of as a dead division for many years. The last fight prior to Trinidad-Hopkins that got any press was Roberto Duran's final effort at a recognized title as he challenged William Joppy for a piece of the middleweight crown. Bernard Hopkins is only being recognized now because for years, most fans kept their eyes on weight classes below 160 and only the heavyweights above 160.
The division has only exploded due to two fighters who were originally welterweights, moving up to 160 pounds to challenge Bernard Hopkins. The long win streak of Bernard Hopkins and his many title defense did little to get the middleweight division on the map. Even after Hopkins defeated Trinidad in the finals of the middleweight tournament, the hot streak of the division died down pretty fast. The middleweight division cooled off after only several months beyond the tournament due to the retirement of Felix Trinidad and poor quality of challengers to the crown of Hopkins.
Even after the knock out loss suffered by De La Hoya, the division is still red hot. The hot streak continues because talented fighters from the lower weight classes are moving up in order to secure big money fights with Trinidad, De La Hoya and Hopkins. The other reason is the huge push that HBO is giving to undefeated middleweight contender Jermain Taylor. The once popular divisions of 147 and 154 are now being overlooked for the middleweight division for the first time in ages. Now that Hopkins has at least 5 or more worthy challengers that are recognized by most boxing fans, 160 pounds may be the most talent loaded division next to the junior welterweights. Felix Trinidad has returned strong and only wants big fights, Oscar is sticking around for big fights, Vargas is a middleweight in 2005, Quartey is back at the end of the year, Winky Wright expects a move to middleweight in 2005 for a title bid, Spinks may come up and talented contenders like Sturm, Eastman and Taylor are still gunning for a title date with Bernard.
The list of matchups are many and can make any boxing fan's mouth water. Oscar can have a long awaited rematch with Quartey, Bernard can rematch Trinidad, Vargas can rematch Wright. How about Taylor against Sturm, maybe against one of the bigger names. As you can see, there is so much potential in a division that had no potential for many years. Not since the days of Hagler, Leonard and Hearns have the middleweights seen so many name value talented fighters at 160 pounds.
The year 2005 will be a huge year for the middleweight division. My prediction is that we will see several big match ups throughout the year in 2005, there just isnt any way around big fights taking place with so many guys in a division where one guy has all the titles. Fighters are going to have to fight eachother in order to get a date with Hopkins, its just that simple. Hopkins is the only fighter to ever hold the titles of all 4 recognized organizations, the WBO, WBA, IBF and WBC. As long as Hopkins holds all of these belts, it gives the division the most stability in all of Boxing as there is only one recoginzed champion, holding all the belts with very popular challengers on his tail trying to get a shot.
2004 was a great year for Boxing, 2005 has the potential to be even better.
