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OK gents thought this might be a bit of fun. I’m of the opinion that the decade from the early 40s to the early 50s had the deepest pool of great middleweights in history.
Unfortunately for one reason or another many fights that I would have loved to have happened didn’t so I’ve selected 16 fighters who fought at MW at around 1942/43 to take part in a tournament.
Now before everyone jumps in and tells me that Charles was fighting at LHW or Robinson was fighting at WW at that time I would point out that Charles fought Burley at MW in 42 and Robinson like Zivic was fighting La Motta in 43.
So a couple might be a stretch but not a leap and let’s be fair I’m pretty much ignoring a war here!
Now the thing to remember is this is not an ATG tournament where we probably all automatically select Robinson, it is a tournament in 1943 so you may feel that Charles might be getting a little weight drained at MW or SRR is punching above his weight. Whilst you may well rate Archie Moore as a top 10 p4p ATG, would you rate him so high if his career ended as a middleweight in 43?
You might not even rank Lloyd Marshall in your top 10 ATG MWs but might feel that in 43 he was the fighter at his peak and the man to beat.
If I have forgotten or omitted a fighter you feel should be in the tournament I apologise, personally I would have loved to have squeezed Davie Sands in, but I have tried to pick fighters who would have been competitive if maybe a touch raw or past best. I’m not 100% happy with Zivic either but he always gave opponents a fight.
On the other side of the coin you might feel that La Motta and Cerdan were probably more peak in 43 than when they actually did win the MW title.
As regards the draw I have tried to pick matches where the fighters never fought, if nothing else it gives some opportunities (if only in our imagination) to the black murderers row they sadly missed out on.
If anyone feels that I have missed an obvious contender or could do a better job of the draw then feel free to suggest an alternative.
Unfortunately for one reason or another many fights that I would have loved to have happened didn’t so I’ve selected 16 fighters who fought at MW at around 1942/43 to take part in a tournament.
Now before everyone jumps in and tells me that Charles was fighting at LHW or Robinson was fighting at WW at that time I would point out that Charles fought Burley at MW in 42 and Robinson like Zivic was fighting La Motta in 43.
So a couple might be a stretch but not a leap and let’s be fair I’m pretty much ignoring a war here!
Now the thing to remember is this is not an ATG tournament where we probably all automatically select Robinson, it is a tournament in 1943 so you may feel that Charles might be getting a little weight drained at MW or SRR is punching above his weight. Whilst you may well rate Archie Moore as a top 10 p4p ATG, would you rate him so high if his career ended as a middleweight in 43?
You might not even rank Lloyd Marshall in your top 10 ATG MWs but might feel that in 43 he was the fighter at his peak and the man to beat.
If I have forgotten or omitted a fighter you feel should be in the tournament I apologise, personally I would have loved to have squeezed Davie Sands in, but I have tried to pick fighters who would have been competitive if maybe a touch raw or past best. I’m not 100% happy with Zivic either but he always gave opponents a fight.
On the other side of the coin you might feel that La Motta and Cerdan were probably more peak in 43 than when they actually did win the MW title.
As regards the draw I have tried to pick matches where the fighters never fought, if nothing else it gives some opportunities (if only in our imagination) to the black murderers row they sadly missed out on.
If anyone feels that I have missed an obvious contender or could do a better job of the draw then feel free to suggest an alternative.
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