Ten best Middleweights of the past 50 Years 1972 – 2022 – Who've You got?

[Ivich]

Whoops! I stand corrected on one point (corrected by myself). Monzon was throwing some pretty decent body shots against Benvenuti. My mistake.

You stand corrected on all points!
Monzon was a fierce body puncher.
He fought loads of big rated middles,
Briscoe won12 decisions.
Valdez was middleweight champion after Monzon.
Valdes was not boring he was a big puncher,the only man to stop Briscoe.
No points were deducted by crooked referees to help Monzon,he didn't need them.
Hagler didnt fight several all time greats who were not past their sell by dates.Only Leonard and Hearns, and 31 years old, 3 years retired Leonard beat him .
Griffith was not small his height was 5 feet seven and a half and his reach was 72 inches.
He was about the same size as other middleweight champions such as ,[give or take a half inch in height either way];
Walker
Lamotta
Graziano
Zale
Cerdan
Thil
Brouillard
Greb
Basilio
Tiger
Fullmer
Valdes
Corro
Hagler
Antuofermo
Cotto
Alvarez
That's 17 middleweight champions
Only Hagler with an abnormal reach ,[for a 5 '8" man] of 75 inches had longer arms.
Griffith's tale of the tape is as follows.
yhst-13159482790260_2269_72662499 (432×474) (yimg.com)
Chest 41 ,43. Expanded Bigger than Marciano's
Reach 72 .4 inches longer than Marciano's
Forearm 14 1/2.
Biceps 16 1/2. bigger than Marciano's
Griffith was not small !

[dreamroom]

Boom, good point. I agree you gotta spend a good amount of time there and be more dominant. Can't just beat the past prime champ, maybe defend a little and leave.

That's the point that needs to be clarified. I inferred "the 10 best middleweights" to mean skill set while they were there.

[Ivich]

That's the point that needs to be clarified. I inferred "the 10 best middleweights" to mean skill set while they were there.

I'd leave the criteria up to you lot! ie If you think Leonard's victory over a top 4 great like Hagler is sufficient to include him.or Canelo's wins over GGG,then so be it.

[dreamroom]

You stand corrected on all points!
Monzon was a fierce body puncher.
He fought loads of big rated middles,
Briscoe won12 decisions.
Valdez was middleweight champion after Monzon.
Valdes was not boring he was a big puncher,the only man to stop Briscoe.
No points were deducted by crooked referees to help Monzon,he didn't need them.
Hagler didnt fight several all time greats who were not past their sell by dates.Only Leonard and Hearns, and 31 years old, 3 years retired Leonard beat him .
Griffith was not small his height was 5 feet seven and a half and his reach was 72 inches.
He was about the same size as other middleweight champions such as ,[give or take a half inch in height either way];
Walker
Lamotta
Graziano
Zale
Cerdan
Thil
Brouillard
Greb
Basilio
Tiger
Fullmer
Valdes
Corro
Hagler
Antuofermo
Cotto
Alvarez
That's 17 middleweight champions
Only Hagler with an abnormal reach ,[for a 5 '8" man] of 75 inches had longer arms.
Griffith's tale of the tape is as follows.
yhst-13159482790260_2269_72662499 (432×474) (yimg.com)
Chest 41 ,43. Expanded Bigger than Marciano's
Reach 72 .4 inches bigger than Marciano's
Forearm 14 1/2.
Biceps 16 1/2. bigger than Marciano's
Griffith was not small !

Good lord his punch must've been like a mule kick! 16 1/2-inch biceps and 14 1/2 forearms!?! That's pretty damn big for 5'7"! And he did kill a guy in the ring...

[The Old LefHook]

You stand corrected on all points!
Monzon was a fierce body puncher.
He fought loads of big rated middles,
Briscoe won12 decisions.
Valdez was middleweight champion after Monzon.
Valdes was not boring he was a big puncher,the only man to stop Briscoe.
No points were deducted by crooked referees to help Monzon,he didn't need them.
Hagler didnt fight several all time greats who were not past their sell by dates.Only Leonard and Hearns, and 31 years old, 3 years retired Leonard beat him .
Griffith was not small his height was 5 feet seven and a half and his reach was 72 inches.
He was about the same size as other middleweight champions such as ,[give or take a half inch in height either way];
Walker
Lamotta
Graziano
Zale
Cerdan
Thil
Brouillard
Greb
Basilio
Tiger
Fullmer
Valdes
Corro
Hagler
Antuofermo
Cotto
Alvarez
That's 17 middleweight champions
Only Hagler with an abnormal reach ,[for a 5 '8" man] of 75 inches had longer arms.
Griffith's tale of the tape is as follows.
yhst-13159482790260_2269_72662499 (432×474) (yimg.com)
Chest 41 ,43. Expanded Bigger than Marciano's
Reach 72 .4 inches bigger than Marciano's
Forearm 14 1/2.
Biceps 16 1/2. bigger than Marciano's
Griffith was not small !

Oh, he wasn't boring? You don't tell me what is not boring. Who is boring is not a fact but an opinion. Did you want to tell me what is not good for breakfast as well? Valdez was so exciting he never gets a whit of attention on boxing forums. No one on here has even mentioned his name for ages.

[billeau2]

Monzon dealt easily with Briscoe the 2nd time around, why should that be a negative for him? Scores were
149-139,150-139,149-143.This was in1972

https://news.google.com/newspapers?i...=1&hl=en&h=188
Hagler stated he never trained harder for any fight than he had for Bennie. Briscoe was 34 years old by then. Briscoe gave him a war.This was in1978!

Should not be Briscoe was the definition of Tough lol. My point is Monzon does not get the credit for fighting tough fighters as much as Hagler. I think they both fought tough fighters and that it is hard to credit a fighter for that quality of opposition. Briscoe is a perfect example... The guy could wear down the energizer Bunny!

[billeau2]

Oh, he wasn't boring? You don't tell me what is not boring. Who is boring is not a fact but an opinion. Did you want to tell me what is not good for breakfast as well? Valdez was so exciting he never gets a whit of attention on boxing forums. No one on here has even mentioned his name for ages.

Ok... Just don't try to push Liver and Onions as breakfast...

[IronDanHamza]

Hagler- ATG did his best work at MW with a significant sample size there
Monzon- ATG did his best work at MW with a significant sample size there
Hopkins- Clear step down from first two, but he's a clear HOFer (despite how some dislike his dirty tactics) and his best work was at MW, plus his defense streak.
McCallum- Lots of good wins at MW, Body Snatcher was great, and this was his prime weight class
GGG- downgraded because of his era. But his era was really the early '10s (and he wiped out many top 10 MWs from that time). Count Canelo robberies in his late 30s to his credit
Toney- Maybe not his prime weight, but he was very good here and has enough of a sample size vs top level opponents to get ranked.
Nunn- Very good and underrated MW, did lots of good work here.
Martinez- Slick and talented, class of the weight class for a good amount of time
McClellan- Beat Mugabi and Jackson (x2) his injury outshines a great career

I didn't rank RJJ or Eubank because there work at MW was mostly early career stuff, and not a lot against quality opponents (though I could see myself moving Eubank up on the list for his couple years of title defense).

Canelo, Hearns, SRL, Duran all could've made it, but just too little sample size, or we are ranking them on their work in other classes and projecting it onto MW. Pavlik, Valdes, Joppy, and Taylor were close too

Interesting you say Middleweight isn’t Toney’s prime weight. Isn’t that the weight that his fans mostly say was his best? Despite the multiple poor performances that are ironically blamed on weight.

If not Middleweight, what is his best weight?

[Ivich]

Oh, he wasn't boring? You don't tell me what is not boring. Who is boring is not a fact but an opinion. Did you want to tell me what is not good for breakfast as well? Valdez was so exciting he never gets a whit of attention on boxing forums. No one on here has even mentioned his name for ages.

You didnt even know Valdez was a worlds champion!
Valdez would have been a long reining middleweight champ if his career hadn't coincided with Monzon's.
I disproved every single one of your statements.
If you had a shred of pride you would be lying low for a while!
Maybe spending the time finding those fictional crooked referees that penalised Monzon's opponents for non-existent fouls.
Don't forget the one who acted as his baggage handler too! lol

You're Simply Ridiculous! Maybe you can team up as a tag team with Queensbury Rules? =Two Muppets Together!

[DeeMoney]

Interesting you say Middleweight isn’t Toney’s prime weight. Isn’t that the weight that his fans mostly say was his best? Despite the multiple poor performances that are ironically blamed on weight.

If not Middleweight, what is his best weight?

I've always felt SMW was his prime weight, which I default to because he was basically bouncing around from 160-175 so much at that time that I just settled on the weight in the middle. I could say that MW was his best, or at least where he had his best wins.

He is odd in this regard as his early career was bouncing around between SMW and MW. Made his good run at MW for about 2 years, then bounced around from SMW to cruiser for years.