The 'lost' middleweight generation (1987-1994)

I recall at the time of the late 80 s it looked as if Nunn had picked up the torch of Best middle from Hagler.Then Toney came along ,it looked for a while as if he was set for a long reign ..wrong again .So for a good portion of time we had no ,just one out standing great title holder .But we did have a division chockablock full of top talent .Just no one man outstanding until Hopkins .

 

The only thing remotely disappointing about it is that we didn't get more of the best fights made, particularly near the tail end of it. Would've loved to see Roy, G-man, and Hopkins have more fights against the other top guys (and each other), although timing was also a factor.

 

Roy vs G-Man is one of the fights I'm really sad we never got to see. Nunn-McCallum and Hearns-McCallum are two other. But Hearns and Mike didn't share much time at MW and seeing how Nunn had starched the guy who had outboxed Mike, it perhaps was hard to generate interest in that fight at the time. In hindsight though these are not only the fights I'd wanted to see in MW history but in boxing history over all. Toney vs G-Man is another that makes my mouth water at the thought of it.

 

Nunn was on track to becoming a great fighter, and was the best middleweight in the world in 88-89. He started slipping when he fought an overcautious, boring fight against Barkley in Aug. 89. Toney and McCallum were very good. Also, Kalambay was very good. Then, Jones started his reign by defeating Hopkins. Jones was a great fighter - he just moved up to get some more titles. He could have cleaned house if he stayed at 160 lbs. longer.

So, it's hardly the "lost generation" you claim it to be.

The 160 lb. title was the last one to get split up. It simply became like almost every other division, where you had 2 or 3 Champions.

 

Jones was a very big MW. If I remember correctly he said in the interview directly after the Hopkins fight that he was 180 lbs in the ring. A unification against McClellan would have been beautiful before he moved up, though.

 

It's a fine thread, you just differ on terminology.

 

Reggie is very underrated in my opinion. You don't see many southpaws who are technically as sound as Reggie was. He could punch as well.

 

Benn was.

 

Great thread.

Some of the answers have been great.


The division was stacked. But unfortunately, we missed out on lots of wonderful fights. And that was due to a culmination of things:

Boxing politics with the rival Org's.

Rival promoters.

Rival networks.

Guys retiring.

Guys moving up to SMW and LHW.


It's a crying shame.

Bernard came out on top. But I always saw that as a lack of ambition on his part. He only committed to the division after most of the best guys had either retired or moved up.

 

Great post.

 

Marvin came up the hard way.

He deserves huge credit. What was it, 50 fights before a title shot?

Incredible. But to be fair to the other guys who followed, it wasn't possible for them to fight everybody, even if they'd really have wanted to.

 

I don't think Manny wanted Tommy to fight Mike.

 

Great post.

 

My guy was Nunn. I saw him fight early on and wrote in a college notebook that I thought he was going to be champ. He such a talent. He was a disappointment.

Lots of good fighters then with plenty of variety. I liked Reggie Johnson quite a bit. Really slick. McCallum was the real deal. Fought everyone and had an absolute granite chin. Had he not run into Jones, Toney could've been champ a while. I'd lean toward him beating Hopkins.

Really solid era that's only drawback was the multiple governing bodies. Too many good fights missed.