Jones had won just 1 of his last 6 fights.True ? or False? The guy he beat was Duane Horsman who never in his career beat a ranked fighter, or indeed a fighter of any real class,he was a journeyman. True? or False? Jones at 34 was having his last fight. True ?or False? Jones was last ranked in1958 when he was number 10.He fought Papp in1962 4 years later. True ? or False? Torres was ranked number 9 in the middleweight division in1963 He had a total of45 fights,32 of them were at middle weight.Among those he beat at that weight were.McClure,Gonzalez,D Fullmer,Paret .True ? or False? Mazzinghi was ranked at middleweight for 5 straight years! 1963 no6, 1964 no5,1965 no7,1966 no 1,1967 no3. He beat Scott,Cassidy,Gonzalez,Hernandez,Brennan,D Fullmer True ? or False? Fernandez was the only man to ko Jose Torres. True ? or False? Boyd beat Mims,Beecham,Castellani,Lausse,Fullmer. True ? or False? Mims beat Brennan,Beacham,Hank,Webb,Benton. True ? or False? Downes was middleweight champion.He beat Robinson,D Fullmer,Giardello,Pender,McClure ,McAteer . True ? or False? Moyer was ranked 9 in1961,6 in1962,9 in1968,2 in1969.Longer and higher than any ranking Papp ever achieved.True ? or False? Papp was a ranked middle weight for a total of 3 years, 1962 no7,1963 no4,1964 no 4. True ? or False? Papp was never ranked higher than number 4 in the Ring Ratings .True ? or False? Papp retired in1964 True ? or False? He could have fought Giardello in1962 or 1963 when both were ranked . Giardello turned pro in1948 and retired in1967. Papp turned pro in 1957 and retired in 1964 So their careers overlapped,and Papp had ample time to fight Giardello had he wished to, and all the other names I mentioned. I've answered all your points, now answer mine!
01 - Mike Gibbons 02 - Charley Burley 03 - Holman Williams 04 - Bert Lytell 05 - Lloyd Marshall 06 - Billy Conn 07 - Georgie Abrahms 08 - Young Corbett III 09 - Jack Chase 10 - Cocoa Kid Stuff like Smith holding the Australian version and Kid McCoy making a lightly recognised claim is excluding them by strict criteria. I'd lean to including them otherwise.
Deary me. ‘Disco thug’ George Benton (not ‘Beton’, by the way)? If you’ve never heard of him, I guess you can’t be expected to understand the nuances of why the fighters in your last paragraph are considered by reasonable fans to have better resumes than Papp as a professional. @mcvey couldn’t have laid it out more clearly for you, but somehow it doesn’t compute. Ignorance is not a virtue, you know, and if you really do like boxing (you do, right? Just checking) you should be thanking @mcvey for schooling you on this - and many other subjects. A little humility goes a long way, my friend...
Some great suggestions so far in this thread - I’m learning about some fighters I knew nothing about. Will try and compile a full list of these and repost them. Looks like we’ll end up with a top 50! Would be interested to see if we can distill it down into a relative consensus to form a top 10.
The thread title is “Top 10 greatest middleweight contenders ever”, yes ever, that’s in the whole of boxing history. How, by any stretch of the imagination when looking at his resume can you include Papp? A great contender generally had to have longevity, have fought other contenders, fought for the title, generally giving a good account of himself in a losing effort. Papp was none of these, although we all know he was a great amateur. Just concede, Papp should be nowhere near the list.
Talking lineal and discounting ABC's Nigel Benn was ok even if not top 10. Mike McCallum was never lineal either.
Really enjoyed this subject matter, Jel and really enjoying the way it is playing out. If you do the other divisions, I'm in.
Do you know I started to reply to this. but then thought ,why am I wasting my time responding to a muppet who has no idea who George Benton was? You are,without doubt the most stupid and ignorant poster that I have ever encountered on this Forum. Nobody ever agrees with you, and many try to inform you, but you remain as stupid as you were when you first surfaced because you cannot be told anything ,and you cannot ever be wrong. You Sir are a complete CRETIN and a total waste of time.
I was including ABCs as legit World titles so Nigel Benn wouldn't count as a contender because of the WBO title.
Always enjoy your contributions, my friend. Yours, McVey's and McGrain's lists in this thread are all excellent.
