Best middleweight?

[nivek535]

robinson #1 because his footage is all in black and white and you can never prove false

[Sugar Adam Ali]

I guess when I pick Robinson I pick him before his retirement and in peak fighting form. I think Jake gives any mw you mention an even chance to lose.

Hagler, monzon, and greb all pummel him.. Jake was 1-5 vs past it Ray and had a huge weight advantage,, he would get bloodied badly by the likes of prime hagler, monzon, greb, even guys like Hopkins would probably carve him up

[Joe Beamish]

Hagler, monzon, and greb all pummel him.. Jake was 1-5 vs past it Ray and had a huge weight advantage,, he would get bloodied badly by the likes of prime hagler, monzon, greb, even guys like Hopkins would probably carve him up

Agree, I can't see LaMotta beating Hagler, Monzon or Greb. He didn't enough power to make up for his lack of speed and reach against such busy, effective fighters. The only reason he troubled Robinson is by outweighing him so much and eating punches all night.

[Ray Corso]

Ray at 147 or 160 means nothing, the talent comes with him at any weight and he fought for ten years as a middleweight and his losses during that time were against men that would dominate today! LaMotta would handle Sergio and the likes and as for Basilo, who would handle him from 147 to 160?
please don't say Mayweather because Mayweathers crying about gloves against a B fighter who comes to fight he would have to have a real bicycle
option in the ring against Basilo!!!
You fellows are leaving out the passion and willingness, yes Hagler and Monson had what the older generation had but none of them were one punch artists! Sugar was NEVER stopped by anyone other than attrition as he was winning against the lightheavy king!!!

Try to measure skill and not all emphasis on "names"!
Look at the balance with movement, then combination punching with power!
The ability to absorb punishment and overall conditioning. When you add up the qualities and experience it takes to be the best Robinson is far ahead of even people like Monson & Hagler. I study fighters by watching their Methods & Techniques, I watch them on attack and how they goive ground and WHY they give ground.
Fighters today step up to get off then automatically reset even if theres no return punches thrown! What the hell is that about?
The best is Robinson to me, everyone is welcomed to their opinions but I just gave reasons why he is #1.
Lunch time, bye all!

[Anthony342]

I still go with Hagler as best middleweight. Hopkins would probably be top 5 or 10 after guys like Monzon, Greb, Robinson.

[rightsideup]

Hagler, monzon, and greb all pummel him.. Jake was 1-5 vs past it Ray and had a huge weight advantage,, he would get bloodied badly by the likes of prime hagler, monzon, greb, even guys like Hopkins would probably carve him up

Jakes last fight with Robinson was when robinson took the title from him. All previous fights plus the title winning fight were with Robinson in his prime which was not the case when sugar was waging war against fullmer and baslio.

[SouthPawHitman]

Hagler, monzon, and greb all pummel him.. Jake was 1-5 vs past it Ray and had a huge weight advantage,, he would get bloodied badly by the likes of prime hagler, monzon, greb, even guys like Hopkins would probably carve him up

This post is very inaccurate. Jake would be hell for any middleweight that has ever lived.

Jake would **** Hopkins up.

[billeau2]

Hagler, monzon, and greb all pummel him.. Jake was 1-5 vs past it Ray and had a huge weight advantage,, he would get bloodied badly by the likes of prime hagler, monzon, greb, even guys like Hopkins would probably carve him up

There it is....the tendency towards overstating something to the point of absurdity....something done here with increasing regularity. Nobody at middleweight would walk through any of these guys...At his best Hopkins, a great fighter, never carved up any ATG fighter at prime. Hopkins was outclassed by Jones, like all the rest of the very good guys who fought at that era. LaMotta didn't eat punches. he rolled with them, he was one of the best pressure guys vis a vis armstrong and a very few others. The difference between a great pressure guy like Lamotta and Hopkins and Mccallum can be observed ala Roy Jones!

Good as Mccallum and Hopkins were when they were hit they stopped advancing...la Motta didn't stop coming foward. All these guys were great.

I think its a toss...who knows? but one thing I do know is when studying what a fighter does, a lot of BS goes out the window. Its easy to see! LaMotta was exceptional and Hopkins would probably fall to LaMotta but he most certainly would not carve him up! Hopkins had nowhere near the power of the Sugar man you dimwit!

[jas]

on the ropes boxing radio:

CIANI: Bernard, looking back at your career as a middleweight, I***8217;m curious, you mentioned top three middleweights before. Where do you rank yourself in middleweight history and who do you consider to be the best in middleweight history?

HOPKINS: I rate myself in the middleweight division definitely in the top five. I rate the greatest middleweight that ever laced a pair of gloves on is Sugar Ray Robinson. Marvin Hagler I believe comes after that. Ray Leonard was a welterweight. His best years were at welterweight. I don***8217;t even put him in there, it has nothing to do with being friends. I respect Ray, he***8217;s done great things. He***8217;s in the top ten. I put myself in the top five. I think behind me, if my numbers are right, you have Sugar Ray Robinson, you have Marvelous Marvin Hagler, you have Bernard Hopkins, you have the late great Carlos Monzon, which could be considered a draw. These names that I just mentioned, I***8217;ll put myself in the top four, at best top five and I***8217;ll take five!

Do you understand how many great welterweights became middleweights that can easily be top five? When you got a guy, I think, I don***8217;t know that you respect Bert Sugar***8217;s wit and experience in boxing. You might not respect everything he says as far as agreeing with him, but when a guy and other guys, like when Angelo Dundee saw me at the gym down in Florida, and then you had older guys like Bennie Briscoe from Philadelphia and a couple of people. Bernard, I***8217;m not just saying this because it***8217;s you, but you are one of the top middleweights in the world. There are some guys, man. There***8217;s Slim Jim Robinson, the late great Slim Jim Robinson. You might not have heard of him, but Georgie Benton. You heard of him.

When guys like that say something to you and you know you put your work in, and they***8217;re not just saying because they can get something out of you and you have belts or whatever. I mean come on, man. Can you imagine Michael Jordan coming up to Lebron and saying, ***8216;Look man, you have the potential to be great and greater***8217;. I mean I don***8217;t care how big your swagger is. You humble yourself to that, man. I***8217;m in the top five, man, and I***8217;ll take five. I***8217;ll take five. Give Monzon four. I***8217;ll take five, because if you mention the thousands and thousands of welterweights and light welterweights that became middleweights and easily could be put in there because they fought middleweight the last ten years or eight years of their career and they***8217;ve done great things. Come on, man! Roberto Duran, let***8217;s not sleep on him. Forget the ***8216;No Mas***8217;. That was in the welterweights. I***8217;m talking about those guys. That***8217;s vicious fighting, man. You take the 80s era, which I grew up on, alone I could grab four or five middleweights who can arguably be in the top ten or even seven. But they gave me five on the books. I mentioned who. He***8217;s known as an historic writer. He***8217;s been around for many years and seen the great ones. I***8217;ll take five.

[young_robbed]

I go with Hagler.