Do they in your criteria meet the requirements of being great? I know there are multiple definitions of the word by different posters standards. Ronald Wright - Avoided like the plague his entire career. Some feel he drew or even beat Hopkin's all the way up at LHW. Beat up Trinidad as bad as anyone, Mosley 2x. Middle of his career was wasted fighting nobodies, sadly. Dariusz Michalczewski - Ultra long, dominant title reign at LHW. Only lost well past his prime when his out of the ring antics caught up to him. Graciano Rocchigiani (A stretch, sure... But screw jobs against the likes of Maske and Michalczewski are great performances by themselves. Plus a win over a old Hamsho, a still dangerous Nunn, Thulani Malinga and some feel he beat Eubank as well) Bennie Briscoe.
Ronald Wright has the resume to be considered great how great though is up to debate. Bennie Briscoe would of been a world champion had he not been unlucky as he was being in the same era as two top 3 greatest middleweights ever, Carlos Monzon and Marvin Hagler.
The only one that verges on being great is Winky IMO. Rocky just falls short (like he did in most of his big fights) and a definitive "no" to the other two. Winky is hard to assess because he had some very big wins, but also fell short in a number of his big fights. To me, one criteria for greatness is the ability to consistently goes that extra mile and win big fights outright, rather than just fall short or "arguably win" them.
The majority seem to play off the first Monzon fight as unimportant even though South American newspapers were very clear that Briscoe deserved the win by a margin. Whether Monzon was in his absolute prime or not isn't damning in my opinion, Briscoe was green having only a little over 20 fights under his belt... As opposed to Monzon who had 49. Monzon had hundreds of professional rounds under his belt and had been in there with seasons veterans like Jorge Jose Fernandez multiple times. If he did get that decision I think it'd rate up there as a all time upset, the last man to beat Monzon as he'd go on to streak for over a decade until his retirement.
Many people felt Winky beat Vargas also. I gave no arguments with people who build up Winky as a great fighter, tremendous skills and he has the names on his resume.
A number of fighters held Monzon to draws at that stage of his career, and none of them are generally considered "great." Briscoe couldn't beat Rodrigo Valdez even once in three tries, and his limitations were badly exposed by a faded Luis Rodriguez and an absolutely ancient Emile Griffith. He was a good, solid leading contender in an era lacking a bit in depth.
I'm not saying he belongs in a P4P top 100 or anything, but which one of the fighters that held Monzon to a draw damn near knocked him out? No one ever heart Monzon worse then Briscoe, not even Valdez late in Monzon's career.
How would anyone know that with next to none of Monzon's pre-championship fights on film? As it is, Felipe Cambeiro reportedly had him down multiple times in a fight Monzon officially lost.
Winky and Michaelczewski are borderline greats. Both can be called great in their weight classes (jmw and lhw) but not on the bigger scale of a p4p basis. With DM you have to remember that he was the champ at the time and not Jones. Jones just got the belts DM git stripped of ... and he won a title at cw too. Rocchigiani and Briscoe were very good fighters that should be remembered. Leading contenders of their era but quite a bit away from beeing great.
Winky- definitly a great fighter Michaelzewski - Barely makes the cut Ramirez - this is a tuff one close as one can get but id have to say No Rocchigiani - very good but no Briscoe - top contender for a long time but not a great fighter
none was great , wright the closest to it but still no. BUT is indeed greater than hopkins. hopkins is a very dirty fighter and a selective one. p4p wright is better.
