Is Chris Eubank the lowest ranked divisional ATG ever?

You are yes. So are they.

 

No he isn't, Lamotta was never in the top 2 best middleweights in the world based on his real results. Your beloved The Ring reported he lost to 3 middleweights in the time he was supposedly Top 2. He got gift decisions and a title shot because he was MOB backed. He was never better than Yarosz, Villemain or Robinson in the MW division.

You're also ignoring the Quartey example. He was never ranked above 3rd in a division and we know many people had him beating one of the best P4P boxers of the era

You also completely ignore The Rings possible geographical bias. Which is pretty obvious given they ranked Barkley above Eubank

 

Lamotta doesn't make the ambiguous Ring Magazine rankings criteria, he makes the obvious criteria of never being the 2nd best middleweight in the world. Eubank is better and greater than Lamotta too

Also WBO 1990s SMW title defenses > 1940s MW Sham Title defenses

 

Who'd you have above LaMotta after he beat Williams and Cerdan? Robinson, yes, but whom else?

 

Villemain and Yarosz. Both were robbed against him, the commision even considered overturning the Villemain decision. I think this is the only time in history a decision has been debated enough for a commision to consider overturning it. Which shows how bad it was. Villemain went on to beat him when he was champion slightly over the MW class.

If Marshall and Lytell can make 160 they beat him on fair scorecards. And Burley probably still beats him coming into that period even if he's past his best

 

While a fair point, this is incredibly rare, with all the dodgy decisions in boxing

 

Yeah, it seems fair to have at least Villemain over him as well, but Yarosz hadn't made 160 in many years. So, yes, I don't think there's a clear cut time when LaMotta breaks into the top 2. But while I have seen him in top 10 ATG MW lists, I wouldn't say that's a consensus choice.

 

While not a consensus choice there seems to be a myth of Lamotta where I've seen people pick him over Hagler, Hopkins, Toney, RJJ amongst other boxers where he'd be way out of his depth.

 

For what it's worth, The Golden Ball in football was much better when only journalists voted. When national captains and coaches got a vote too it started to detoriate imo.

And of course they can spot quality better than a journalist, but they are mostly going to be concerned about their own team and teams they come up against. Many probably don't even watch other games, since they get their fill as it is. For the journalists, their whole job is to watch games and write about them. They don't spend their whole day training and preparing. They watch and they write.

And then there's always going to be the personal factor as well, being more prone to vote for teammates and less to vote for players of rival teams.

 

He is often overrated, yes. I had a long discussion about that years ago here on this board.