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

[Ivich]

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.

Very hard to classify and evaluate some of these guys.
Once I got past rating my top 3
Monzon
Hagler
Hopkins
I began to struggle, Jones didnt do much at160lbs ,nor did Toney,Leonard , or Alvarez but they may very well have beaten guys with better resumes such as Kalambay Golovkin,Nunn,McCallum,Taylor, and in some cases did.

[IronDanHamza]

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.

Very interesting.

If SMW was his best weight why do you think it’s so common for people to act like he was at his worst physically against Roy Jones, which was at that weight?

[DeeMoney]

Very interesting.

If SMW was his best weight why do you think it’s so common for people to act like he was at his worst physically against Roy Jones, which was at that weight?

Probably because he was a crazy weight class nomad and blew up and went down all the time. Just a few months before he fought RJJ he was fighting at a cruiser weight. His weight was all over the place, and he still gets mocked for it today.

Like I wrote, I kind of just settled on SMW being his prime weight because it falls somewhat in the middle of all the weights he boxed through during his best years. like a default prime weight

[DeeMoney]

Very hard to classify and evaluate some of these guys.
Once I got past rating my top 3
Monzon
Hagler
Hopkins
I began to struggle, Jones didnt do much at160lbs ,nor did Toney,Leonard , or Alvarez but they may very well have beaten guys with better resumes such as Kalambay Golovkin,Nunn,McCallum,Taylor, and in some cases did.

I agree, the top 3 are locked in. I think McCallum and GGG are solidly in as well. I know GGG gets derided for his resume, but he took out most of the top 10 MWs of the early 2010s, and for some reason everyone forgot about them by the mid 2010s- not to mention most fair observers give him credit for what took place in the Canelo I fight.

[IronDanHamza]

Probably because he was a crazy weight class nomad and blew up and went down all the time. Just a few months before he fought RJJ he was fighting at a cruiser weight. His weight was all over the place, and he still gets mocked for it today.

Like I wrote, I kind of just settled on SMW being his prime weight because it falls somewhat in the middle of all the weights he boxed through during his best years. like a default prime weight

Hmm, technically but realistically that “Crusierweight” fight was 180 lbs and nothing more than him staying busy.

He fought Littles 2 months prior at 168 and Prince Charles 2 months after at 168, which was between that fight and the Roy Jones fight. The one was supposedly “drained” for.

Anyway, I don’t disagree, 168 probably was his best weight. I just find these kind of things interesting with all the weight excuses that get thrown around on this topic.

[The Old LefHook]

Monzon fought plenty of full sized middles..
Valdes
Mundine also fought at lhvy and hvy
Bogs fought at lhvy
Tonna
Licata
Moyer
Briscoe
Bouttierx2
Benvenutix2
Valdes,Licata,Bogs ,Benvenuti ,were actually slightly heavier.


Hagler's major fights are over Duran ,a past prime lightweight Antuofermo a draw and win against a former light middle.A win over Hearns a former welter,Mugabi a light middle, and a loss to a former welterweight who had never fought at middle nor fought for the previous 3 years.

You need to watch Monzon/Briscoe ll again. Though no points were deducted, the ref with several false warnings, essentially forced Briscoe to change his game plan and become a headhunter. The warnings were bogus and it is hard to imagine those bogus warnings did not affect the fight. It takes a greater imagination than I have.

[QueensburyRules]

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.

- - The Duran that did a number on a much better Barkley than the poor version who entered the ring with a busted eye that TwoTon fought would've handled TwoTon even easier had he been ready at that time.

[Ivich]

You need to watch Monzon/Briscoe ll again. Though no points were deducted, the ref with several false warnings, essentially forced Briscoe to change his game plan and become a headhunter. The warnings were bogus and it is hard to imagine those bogus warnings did not affect the fight. It takes a greater imagination than I have.

You stated Monzon had crooked South American referees deducting points from his opponents for non existent fouls.
" Referees from South America cheated for him as well, calling fouls against opponents who had not committed a foul. You can see this in the second Briscoe fight"

I asked you to provide names of referees and fights in which this occurred.
You provided NOTHING
Briscoe had no points deducted in either of his fights with Monzon,your statement that this hampered /intimidated him from fighting his normal fight is just your opinion and not supported by fact. No ringside reports say the referee was overly partial to Monzon in the 2nd Briscoe fight or that he was a crooked official.
The referee for the 2nd Briscoe fight was Victor Avendano .
Monzon had100 fights ,Avendano refereed him just twice.
Don't worry about your imagination,you have a very vivid one!

Carlos Monzón vs Bennie Briscoe II November 11, 1972 - YouTube
Rd1.Briscoe lands 2 borderline shots and 2 on the top of Monzon's thigh.No warnings
Rd2. Briscoe warned for carless head work unjustified imo.
Rd3.Briscoe lands 4 borderline/low punches and is warned for careless use of the head ,justified imo.
Rd 6 .Briscoe lands low.
Rd7.Briscoe warned for kidney punch,no point deducted.
Rd9.Brisoce lands huge right hand that puts Monzon on ***** street.Monzon makes a great recovery.
Rd10,Briscoe is hurt.
Rd.11 Briscoe lands low, no warning.
Rd12 Monzon is dominating now as Bennie begins to tire from the fast pace.Monzon is able to land several uppercuts in these later rounds.
Rd 13 Briscoe land low again, no warning
Summary Monzon was able to control the range with his jab .Briscoe showed a great chin absorbing so big shots.Briscoe landed loads of shots to the kidney area ,but he was a hooker and none of them were probably intentional
Conclusion apart from an uneccessary caution for head work in the 2nd rd the referee did a decent job and Briscoe was not hampered by his officiating,he was throwing body shots the whole of the fight.in the last couple of rounds he concentrated on head punches because he knew he needed a ko to win.
Observation, that version of Briscoe,would have given the 31 years old Leonard who hadn't fought for 3 years pure hell!

[Dr. Z]

My quick picks:

1. Carlos Monzon
2. Marvelous Marvin Hagler
3. Bernard Hopkins
4. Gennadiy Golovkin
5. Sergio Martinez
6. Rodrigo Valdez
7. Saul Canelo Alvarez
8. Thomas Hearns*
9. Sugar Ray Leonard*
10. Roy Jones Jr.*

Honorable Mention selections:




Bad Bennie Briscoe

James Toney*

Mike McCallum*

Chris Eubank*

Gerald McClellan

Steve Collins

Michael Nunn

Kelly Pavlik

Julian Jackson*

Hugo Corro

Arthur Abraham

Vito Antuofermo

Roberto Duran*

Iran Barkley*

Jermain Taylor

Ronald Winky Wright*

Herol Graham

Jean Claude Bouttier

Alan Minter

Mustafa Hamsho

Bobby Boogaloo Watts

John Mugabi

Nigel Benn*

Sumbu Kalambay

Billy Joe Saunders

Jermall Charlo

Kell Brook

Gratien Tonna

Daniel Geale

Felix Sturm

Miguel Cotto*

Felix Trinidad*

Juan Domingo Roldan

Michael Watson

William Joppy

Dwight Davison

Reggie Johnson

Demetrius Andrade

Frank Fletcher

Keith Holmes

Ronnie Harris

Tony Mundine

Tom Bogs

Thomas Tate*

Jaime Munguia

Kevin Finnegan

Emile Griffith

Daniel Jacobs*

Tony Sibson

Sam Soliman

Willie The Worm Monroe

Marco Antonio Rubio

Sugar Ray Seales

Bobby Czyz*

Paul Williams*

David Lemieux

Tony Licata

Eugene Cyclone Hart

Fulgencio Obelmejias

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr

Howard Eastman

Nessim Max Cohen

• * = Much of their career work done outside of the Middleweight division.

A lot of names there. Good work.

• Marvelous Marvin Hagler
• Carlos Mozon
• Gennadiy Golovkin - Still active
• Roy Jones
• Bernard Hopikins
• James Toney
• Saul Canelo Alverz - still active
• Sergio Martinez
• Mike Nunn
• Jermaine Taylor

[mrbig1]

Monzon fought plenty of full sized middles..
Valdes
Mundine also fought at lhvy and hvy
Bogs fought at lhvy
Tonna
Licata
Moyer
Briscoe
Bouttierx2
Benvenutix2
Valdes,Licata,Bogs ,Benvenuti ,were actually slightly heavier.


Hagler's major fights are over Duran ,a past prime lightweight Antuofermo a draw and win against a former light middle.A win over Hearns a former welter,Mugabi a light middle, and a loss to a former welterweight who had never fought at middle nor fought for the previous 3 years.

I could not agree more. All of these fighters are in my lifetime. Bro, I've seen all time MW list from many boxing writers, fans, and other boxers. I have never seen Monzon lower than 3 on any list. Teddy Atlas has his greatest p4p fighters since 1950. He has 1. Ali 2, Monzon. Understand this, I hate Monzon. you could not find a worse Human on this earth. I don't know how he was so cool and calm in the ring. He must have sold his soul to Satan.