1. SRR 2. Hagler 3. Monzon 4. Ketchel 5. Greb 6. Jones Jr. 7. Burley 8. The rest - Hopkins , Toney , Zale , Walker.
I think someone like Freddie Steele could definitely rank ahead of Hopkins. Look at his record and the quality of the guys he fought. He was not as dominant as Hopkins, but in that era he could have been, imo. Hopkins in Steele's era would have picked up a few losses here and there.
Ridiculous. Monzon and Greb are surely #1 and #2, in whatever order. Hagler a clear top-three and clearly above Robinson, no question whatsoever. Leonard had only one fight at the weight! LaMotta, Zale, Graciano, Kalambay, Toney and McCallum are obviously in front of the guy.
I would have loved to see if Hopkins would of tried his intimidation pre fight tactics against Hagler and Monzon and how it would have played out I don't think for one moment either fighter would have stood for it.
Good to have this post, just to show even even ATG fighters haave their irrational haters, puts a lot of the garbase I read on ESB into perspective.
This is a pretty good list but I don't agree with where you place Mickey Walker. There's no way you can put someone like Burley ahead of Walker who was a long standing MW titleholder in his era. I also rank Greb over Ketchel. The Hagler-Monzon debate will probably never end. I mean these are 2 guys that could've easily won the fighter of the decade awards in the 70's and 80's (ended up being won by Duran and SRL,) and were both longstanding, dominant MW champs. Good list overall though. Hopkins is an ATG, but the MW division has been one of the glamour divisions for almost 100 years now, there were some really incredible ATG's that campaigned in that division and that's primarily the reason why I think Bernard couldn't be considered anything higher than top 6 or 7 all time in the MW division. Still a very impressive feat.
Well I disagree!! SSR- even though he was good at MW winning the title and recapturing even late in his career his real fame was made and greatness at WW...as a MW , he was probably #5 in a top 5 list! In similar fashion , SRL, siMilar case to SRR... But the MW as a division is hard to asses since it is the landing spot for WW that no longer can't make 147, historically this is the case...so we need to go by the pool of boxers that fought their career or the majority of their career at MW... So my list: 1. Monzon 2. MMH 3. BHOP 4. La Motta 5. Maybe Walker, Greb and Ketchel tied ....
Can't rate Leonard above Hopkins to be honest. While Leonard's victory over Hagler is a legendary and ATG one, it can't be better than everything Hopkins did at Middleweight. Leonard had two noteworthy wins(Hagler and Duran) at Middleweight and a total of three fights.