When I think of cleaning out a division ,, Roberto Duran's reign of terror at lightweight is the first thing that comes to mind.
He held all 3 major organizations for years. He had to move up to heavyweight just to make a decent challenge. Hopkins avoided a rematch with him for years.
What division did he clean out? I thought every division he fought in there was always at least 2 other champions. This is the reason why I have a hard time ranking him among the ATG's. In his era, yes, ATG? IMO it is an injustice to use one record he broke (winning a single title in 8 weight classes) as a way to say he should be joined in the ranks of those who held mutliple titles in the same division, if not all the major belts. To his credit, 4 times he did fight to hold more than one title. He went 0-2-2. My fav who cleaned out their division and became undisputed would be BHop- WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO defended 6x. That's a bad mutha! Emile Griffith Unified WBC/WBA & defended them 6x. Jose Napoles WBC/WBA Twice unified 2nd time around 9x defended...good definition of cleaning house. Hagler unified WBA, WBC, IBF & kept the house clean! No Contenders, pretenders, hypes, bums, he swept house frequently.12x. Agreed with takes on Joe Louis, Ray Robinson, Archie Moore, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis & Holyfield
Has Vicente Saldivar been mentioned at featherweight in the 60s? He cleaned that up so much he retired at 24!
Obviously I like the shout and he beat the best contenders who would all go on to hold the WBC title after Arguello moved up... but can he be considered when he held only one of the two versions of the world title? Don't get me wrong, I think he would have kicked Samuel Serrano's ass but he didn't fight him so not sure that's cleaning out the division.