My top 10 middleweights.

For a start.... Tiger Flowers ? really ? lol... Fitz would knock that dude out in a single round... You could find that Flowers doesn't even make a Top 40 list, he wouldn't make my top 30

 

He did miss Yarosz though, which was probably the other guy of the era and that puts a dent in his dominance. He "beat-the-guy-that-beat-the-guy" but that's not the same thing.

That said there's not a lot of fighters with the same combination of depth and consistency during their prime in the division. If he had beaten a pre-injury Yarosz his place in the top 5 would be rock solid for me.

 

Because I consider all eras the omission of Fitzsimmons is the biggie. At 160 lbs. he was as dangerous as it gets and is the one guy I wouldn't be surprised if he one-shotted Greb. Of course some merely see a malnutritioned baldy shuffling about in a nappy, but there we are.

 

Funny, but to not mention Stanley Ketchel on the list, who by all boxing writers who had seen him and most of his successors and called him the greatest MW they ever saw, seems to me to be almost sacrilege...Some unaware posters base their opinion on just TWO film of Ketchel. His last bout with Billy Papke and the
ludicrous fight with the 40 pound heavier great heavyweight Jack Johnson. What if they saw Ketchel flatten his 49 other ko victims when he was in his heyday ? Hmmmm ?...

 

MDQ boxing had been the norm for about 20 years when Ketchel was on the scene. We have had 100 years since his presence. How much credence do we give observers with such a small frame of reference?

 

DpW, AND SO DO I. I cannot see any middleweight in history beating a two eyed fully rested and prime Harry Greb in a 15 round fight. The only 160 pound fighter who is a threat to a Harry Greb or anyone you can name was the 160 pound prime
Ruby Bob Fitzsimmons who was truly a heavyweight from the waist up...At160 pounds Fitz destroyed heavyweights time and again. But Mr Greb was my man.
If you couldn't knock him out in his prime, you couldn't land more punches, so how are you gonna win ???

 

:good

 

Ketchel was No 1 on many lists for many decades. No credible list avoids listing him. Tough as nails, one punch killer in the ring.

 

Absolutely true:good. But it does make for compelling conversation nevertheless.