1. Eubank Sr 2. Calzaghe 3. Benn 4. Toney 5. Jones 6. Ward 7. Collins 8. Froch 9. Liles 10. Lindell Holmes or G. Rocchigiani That's more like it. Ottke lost at least 5 or 6 fights clearly.
Got dropped by Roy but won the other 35 minutes and 59 seconds of that fight. Beat Hopkins 115-112 in my opinion. And B-Hop was coming off back to back wins over Tarver and Winky and would beat Pavlik in his next fight after the loss to Calzaghe. Some of the best wins of his career. Not relevant to the thread anyway as both fights happened at 175.
It baffles me that two guys in the same division in the same era can make 20 defenses and never fight each.. Ottke unified first then retired and Calzaghe unified then beat Kessler for undisputed..
For me, it’s got to be based on talent as well as resume. Collins should never be higher than a guy like James Toney.
I remember it well. But after watching a few documentaries, I think that there was something seriously wrong with Gerald. Even before they fought.
Ward is a complete fanny & the beneficiary of years of 'American privilege' within boxing .. he made his name off of Calzaghes sloppy seconds, was clearly on peds, continually used illegal tactics to win fights & never travelled. Calzaghe = the #1 SMW.
There is no way that Eubanks can rank no 1 at smw . Calzaghe, Ottke and Ward should be placed above him Ottke did get a number of gifts, but so did Eubank. He got at least 3 at smw: Benn , Schwommer and Thornton He was also beaten by Collins twice Jones ranks too high as well. Outside of Toney he did not do much
