Greatest Contenders - Junior middleweights (super-welters)

Great list! I did a bit research and would like to add Luigi Minchillo (My personal favourite, from my favourite country Italy with fights against Duran, Hearns and McCallum), Vanes Martirosyan (very confusing with all his titles, but I think he is eligible), Kermit Cintron, James Kirkland, Tony Marshall, Gregory Clark, Rodney Jones and Louis Acaries.

 

Not in specific order
1. Sergio Martinez
2. Antonio Margarito
3. Herol Graham
4. Guillermo Jones
5. Bronco McKart
6. Lubin
7. Carlos Molina
8. Vanes
9. Kofi Jantuah
10. Jorge Castro
11. Aaron Davis

 

This was a fairly deep division in the '80s. One of the tougher contenders in that era was Moroccan Said Skouma, the longtime Euro champ fighting out of France, who used that belt to get a couple of cracks at world champions Mike McCallum and Buster Drayton. He fought pretty well against McCallum, but McCallum was a class above and Skouma caught some bad breaks in that fight. IIRC one of the rounds lasted 4:30. Duva was screaming, "Bell, bell, bell!" and then as McCallum began to dominate in the extra time he shut the hell up. The Drayton fight looks from the highlights on YouTube to have been an absolute war.

Skouma was game and had heavy hands, but he needed better defense or more durability to truly reach the next level. His bout with Jimmy Cable was another instance of him getting into a brutal fight and failing to make the final bell. He was really in control of that one, too.

 

The Manc in me feels the need to mention Jamie Moore. Whether or not he's actually worthy is another story.

 

I think Leicester's Chris Pyatt deserves a mention. Very dominant on the home front but didn't really fight the big American names. He did get a title shot against a very useful John David Jackson but what sticks out for me is the points win up at middleweight against Sumbu Kalambay for the WBO title which he defended a couple of times, Chris was never really a middleweight as the Steve Collins fight showed, Steve was just too big and strong for him. He went back to light middle to finish off his career and didn't hang around too long.

 

I nwver seem to keep track of the belts. WBO was so lightly regarded back then that I must have erased McKart's belt from memory.

 

Someone who hasn't been mentioned and is right up there with the very best is Emile Griffith. He very rarely weighed in at the middleweight limit and even came in below 154 for middleweight title fights.

 

He did win a version of the light middleweight title, but was only recognised by the Australian Board.

 

Yes I was aware of that and I think the original post wouldn't recognize that title but it is more reason for including him at the weight. Scar will have to say whether he's happy with it.