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It's hard comparing old middleweights to new ones because of the second day weigh in rule.
Bernard Hopkins and Kelly Pavlik are both over 6 ft tall.
Carlos Monzon was a lanky mw for his day and he was only 5'11. His height played a big role in his dominance because he was quite good at keeping people in his range with his accuracy. What happens when he fights B-Hop?
Then Marvin Hagler, a supremely skilled mw, often would only come in at 160 on the dot, you put him beside Duran and you can see how small of a mw he really was. Joshua Clottey weighs damn near the same as him on fight night. Antonio Margarito was basically Monzonz size at 5'11 and 165 lbs on fight night.
I'm not picking a winner but there are a lot of disputable weight and size differences because fighters can drain themselves now. all i'm saying is it makes picking a winner much much harder with these intangibles.
Even further back you had mw's who had trouble even making the MW limit. They would come in light. They couldn't make 135 but they also weren't heavy enough for 147. For some freaks of nature this doesn't matter (Pacquiao, a 149 lb fighter) but in some cases you can see the strength disadvantage (Floyd Mayweather in some of his WW fights looked severely overpowered and he resorted to running) much like in Leonard vs Hagler.
not everyone can stick and move though like these guys - much like Napoles vs Monzon, the typical out come when a fighter goes in out gunned.
Thomas Hearns was 145 lbs weighing in to fight Leonard. Being 6 ft 1 thats very slim. People don't realize that 5'6 1/2 Pacquiao actually weighs more than Hearns most likely by at least 3 lbs on fight night.
So really, can Hopkins legitimately call himself a middleweight? could he even make 160 without a day to rehydrate? Let's not forget he started his career at 175.
Bernard Hopkins and Kelly Pavlik are both over 6 ft tall.
Carlos Monzon was a lanky mw for his day and he was only 5'11. His height played a big role in his dominance because he was quite good at keeping people in his range with his accuracy. What happens when he fights B-Hop?
Then Marvin Hagler, a supremely skilled mw, often would only come in at 160 on the dot, you put him beside Duran and you can see how small of a mw he really was. Joshua Clottey weighs damn near the same as him on fight night. Antonio Margarito was basically Monzonz size at 5'11 and 165 lbs on fight night.
I'm not picking a winner but there are a lot of disputable weight and size differences because fighters can drain themselves now. all i'm saying is it makes picking a winner much much harder with these intangibles.
Even further back you had mw's who had trouble even making the MW limit. They would come in light. They couldn't make 135 but they also weren't heavy enough for 147. For some freaks of nature this doesn't matter (Pacquiao, a 149 lb fighter) but in some cases you can see the strength disadvantage (Floyd Mayweather in some of his WW fights looked severely overpowered and he resorted to running) much like in Leonard vs Hagler.
not everyone can stick and move though like these guys - much like Napoles vs Monzon, the typical out come when a fighter goes in out gunned.
Thomas Hearns was 145 lbs weighing in to fight Leonard. Being 6 ft 1 thats very slim. People don't realize that 5'6 1/2 Pacquiao actually weighs more than Hearns most likely by at least 3 lbs on fight night.
So really, can Hopkins legitimately call himself a middleweight? could he even make 160 without a day to rehydrate? Let's not forget he started his career at 175.
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