The Vicious Middleweight Assault On SMW Marches On... Which MW's Should Move North Next?

This probably isn't going to one of my finer rants, its more of a observational ramble.

Okay, so a couple years ago I wrote a few articles on here stating that the Super Middleweight division was in terrible shape, despite all the copious claims to the contrary, and that Middleweight was far the superior of the two, and many laughed at me, and said I was being a biased fanboy, gaslighting the division in a veiled scurrilous attempt to blow smoke up the ass of Gennady Golovkin, as opposed to the reality, that I genuinely thought the Middleweight division was in fact.... better. Well... it seems that I've been proven pretty close to 100% correct.

After all, the Middleweights went all out and proved it, by invading Super Middleweight and beating their asses.

Let's take a look at some recent developments shall we.

Jose Uzcategui
To many he was a relative unknown when he viciously KO'd Andre Dirrell in their first fight, and was then wrongly DQ'd and assaulted by Dirrell's uncle for having the audacity to win a fight by KOing a guy he wasn't suppose to KO. Well in the rematch, The Oozecat rectified the injustice from the first fight, by making Dirrell embarrassingly finally legitimately do what he'd illegitimately weaseled his way around before, and quit outright. He has another impressive win at SMW where obliterated Julius Jackson the son of Julian, in two vicious hard to watch rounds. Well guess what, Jose is a Middleweight, in fact Uzcategui holds a win over Porky Medina, who he dominated down at Middleweight. But you know who he didn't beat??? Matvey Korobov, that's who. He was pretty much dismantled from start to finish with Korobov even managing to drop him not once but twice. So one of the future shining lights of SMW, is in the words of MW haters, an average Middleweight who lost to an Andy Lee victim.

Caleb Truax
Okay, fine he got KO'd in one round by Anthony Dirrell in his debut in the division, but in Caleb's defense, he was preoccupied with the recent brain bleed suffered by his wife right before the fight, so one could forgive him for having his mind somewhere else and not being fully engaged going in. Most normal people wouldn't be able to fully concentrate with something like that going on. But he followed that dreadful performance up with his vicious beatdown of James DeGale in a fight where he was brought in to be just another victim, well he flipped the script and was on DeGale from bell to bell and won a well earned decision. Now keep in mind, with Jack moving up, this was "The Man" in the division, okay maybe he was coming off of an injury, well what's his excuse for looking terrible in the rematch as well and arguably losing that? Truax performed as poorly in the rematch as humanly possible and still came damn close to beating him.

Well this is the same Caleb Truax who did not win ONE ROUND against The Miracle Man Danny Jacobs and was viciously stopped in the 12th after taking a horrendous one sided beating for the previous 11. So the man who beat the man, got his ass beaten by maybe the 3rd or 4th best man at Middleweight.

Also, Marco Antonio Rubio, the GGG KO2 victim, was brought in as yet another easy KO victim for The Dog Anthony Dirrell. He went the distance.

John Ryder
John, whose three losses include a fairly competitive but comprehensive loss to the great Billy Joe Saunders, the other a freak unexpected KO loss to Nick Blackwell. The third should be ignored entirely, he dominated Jack Arnfield to the point where the British commentators were basically saying Arnfield needed a KO to win, and then Ryder was savagely robbed. But he bounced back beautifully by... moving up to Super Middleweight, where he took on once bright light before being KO1 by Callum Smith, Rocky Fielding, well in the estimation of most people scoring the fight Ryder won it fairly easily, while it was an ugly fight with a few close rounds, it was fairly clear who the better man was, and as usual, the better man got robbed blind losing a SD to Fielding. But he didn't leave it up to the judges in his next outing where he dominated decent once defeated Patrick Nielsen from start to stoppage, his first KO loss, in yet another one sided performance.

So, by all rights, a BJS victim has wins over two fairly good SMW's in Fielding and Nielsen, and is going for his third in Jamie Cox, who I might add, is also a former Middleweight.

Chris Eubank Jr.
Yes, he finally lost, but it took perhaps the number one guy in the division to pull it off. Yet another Saunders victim, who after moving up to Super Middleweight, showed some pretty goddamn impressive form until running headlong into a BJS like stylistic nightmare in Groves, who I said would beat him for over a year. Before that loss, he managed to rack up two very impressive back to back wins over King Arthur Abraham an old once great destroyer, who was still capable of defeating decent opposition in Krasniqi, and Avni Yildirim, who was seen by many a potential future destroyer. Yildirim had racked up a few fairly impressive victories over The Road Warrior Glen Johnson, Periban and Hyppolyte, who he destroyed. Well, Young Christopher carved through them like a hot knife through butter and rose through the ranks in dominant fashion, and quite frankly still could probably savagely beat down and stop poor old shot to hell Chunky.

A few other notes....

Murray in the view of many, also beat Abraham, I thought it was a draw, but I can't stand Murray, so take that with a grain of salt.

And lets not forget that J'Leon Love lost and got a gift against Gabriel Rosado at Middleweight, and was then violently butt jigglingly KO'd by Porky Medina after his move up from Middleweight.

Dashon Johnson a Middleweight gatekeeper had Jesse Hart in terrible shape flopping all over the ring like a fish out of water in the 10th of their fight where he had him completely out on his feet after a KD, its a damn good thing that was a 10 rounder, because Jesse wouldn't have seen the 12th. Well Middleweight Sergey Derevyancheko just dominated and stopped Johnson in 6.

Ronald Gavril who dropped Benavidez and debatably drew with him, battled Jesse Nicklow to an 8 round unanimous decision, Sergey Derevyanchenko mopped the floor with poor Jesse gruesomely battering him from one side of the ring to the other, mercifully it only lasted three rounds. Another Gavril connection, he lost his 0 to Elvin Ayala, yeah the same Middleweight Ayala who got decapitated in one by both David Lemieux and Curtis Stevens, the same Ayala who yes... Sergey Derevyanchenko dismantled over 10 and almost stopped in a ridiculously one sided destruction.

Callum Smith went the 10 round distance with Vladine Biosse, Derevyanchenko stopped him in 2.

You see where I'm going with this aren't you? Derevyanchenko could probably whoop some Super Middleweight ass too.

A few other warning signs, Denis Douglin who was stopped in 7 by Groves, gave David Benavidez all he could handle for about 6 or 7 rounds in a very competitive fight, before finally succumbing in the 10th. While I like David, it wouldn't shock me in the least if yet another Middleweight moved up and took his 0.

And Derek Edwards the KO1 Conqueror of Badou Jack, who's gone on to go the distance with Erik Skoglund, Andre Dirrell, Avni Yildirim and Gilberto Ramirez....

Well Korobov dominated and stopped him in 9, his last KO loss to date, and Korobov is kind of a featherfist.

So you get my point right? Like I said before, Super Middleweight is a terrible division, with two or three bright spots in Groves, Benavidez and kind of Ramirez.


Well.... which Middleweight would you like to see move up next? Golovkin? Jacobs? Saunders? The division is in shambles and is ripe for the picking, I mean here I thought the cream of the crop of Middleweight could move up and take out the top dogs there. Even I couldn't have predicted it would be the low hanging fruit at Middleweight like Truax, Uzcategui, Eubank Jr. and Ryder that would get to them first.

(Actually I did predict Uzcategui would stop Dirrell, both times.)

I have a feeling they lucked out that GGG didn't decide to make the move north, there's a possibility there'd be no one left standing at this point if he had.

Hell, its so bad now, I think Carl Froch could come out of retirement and be lineal champ there in a year.

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Saunders-Groves is a 50/50 fight in fact I give Saunders a better shot at beating Groves than I do Callum Smith. Saunders has underrated pop, which I think would improve if he made the trek north.

 

I rate Uzcategui, Lee and Korobov highly, you imbecile, don't you know when I'm being sarcastic by now? According to most of the dunderheaded dickwads on this site, they're bums. So I figured I'd rub that one under their nose a little.

 

Its not very hard to follow is it? I've been saying for a few years that Middleweight was superior to Super Middleweight in terms of talent, well recently multiple MW's have moved up and proved me right. By beating the guys at SMW's asses.

That being said, while I like Uzcategui, Truax and Ryder, they aren't what I'd call even close to the elite of the division. While personally not a big fan or CEJ, he's the closest to an elite at MW that has moved up, and it took another full blown elite at SMW to beat him.

With Korobov and Derevyanchenkko, I do view them as top tier, as far as Lee goes, aside from his chin issues, he is as well. But none of them have moved up to SMW yet have they?

 

I didn't have the need to tear him down, it was tongue on cheek speaking in nimrod ESB parlance, to most dumb posters, he would be considered "a decent Middleweight who lost to an Andy Lee victim", many were tearing down Korobov and Lee when they were mentioned as possible GGG opponents for Christ Sakes. You forget in this day and age, one loss the majority of fanboys write you off.

 

**** 'em indeed.

And sorry about that. Triggering Uzcategui fans was genuinely never my intent.