Originally posted by SteveM
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Who said anything about GGG?
Elite means persons of the highest class:the choice or best of anything considered collectively, as of a group or class of persons.
After Joe Calzaghe retired, the best super middleweights have been Carl Froch and Kessler....He beat both as the underdog and also both were at the top of their divison, both have been p4p entrants....so they meet the criteria of being labeled elite
I agree Estrada is elite...Now...... but I disagree with the win being more impressive considering when the fight happened. Estrada was highly ranked and never held a title at that point and his best win Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr. who also beat him.
Kessler only lost to ATG calzaghe and was unified champion before he ever fought Ward....his other loss is to Hall of fame bound Froch which happened afterwards...before he lost to Ward he had already defeated half a dozen current or future titlists
Before Froch fought Ward he had a better resume than Estrada when he fought Chocolatito as well.....with wins over Pascal, Taylor and Robin Reid
Arthur Abraham was never an elite super middleweight but he was an elite middleweight and defended his IBF strap ten times and beat competition on par or better than GGG, since you brought him up...Abraham was knocking guys out at 160 and was undefeated there with a record of 30-0 (25 kos)
All 3 are/were elite fighters(Froch, Estrada and Kessler)
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