Eddie Futch's Top 4 Middleweights.

I remember the title defense against Tony Licata on June 30 1975 in Madison Square Garden, Monzon by TKO 10.

 

Yeah, Cerdan definitely seems out of place in that list. No argument with the other three names, of course. No mention of Greb either, though I'm not particularly surprised by his omission.

By 1986 it was clear that Hagler could have hung with the best from any era in middleweight history.

Do you know if this was before or after the Mugabi fight, John?

 

1. There’s a thread on here somewhere in the archives about exactly when and how Greb began to be rated so highly because if you go back far enough you rarely see him mentioned. And not just because there’s no film of him because before YouTube most people didn’t know who there was or wasn’t film of and didn’t see most of the film that was out there — not like they showed old B&W (or even color) fight films on TV. He just for some reason wasn’t as regarded as a lot of other guys.

2. (Not speaking directly to @JohnThomas1 here but to the thread in general) Cerdan is easy to overlook because he lost to LaMotta but he fought one-handed most of the way due to an injury sustained when LaMotta threw/wrestled him to the canvas. I think Cerdan would have been favored in the rematch had he not died in a place crash — and if that was the case he’d be discussed in the upper echelon of 160-pounders.

3. Not to do with middleweights, but Eddie saw a LOT of boxing history with his own eyes. I remember distinctly in the lead-up to Tyson-Spinks that he said Tyson had the fastest hands of any heavyweight he’d seen since Joe Louis — yet people don’t often credit Louis with having faster hands than Ali or Patterson. I’ll trust Eddie’s judgment on that.

 

It's a good list. Obviously Futch knows what he speaks of.

Cerdan is underrated on this forum, and SRR as a middleweight has been underrated on this forum at times too.

 

Very interesting I rate Futch at the top as a trainer.Cerdan being there is a huge surprise to me.
No Greb,Walker,Ketchel, Steele?
Was Eddie perhaps only rating those he had seen himself?

 

I'm suprised he didn't say Burley or Marshall.

 

I think he's just rating world champions. I would expect Burley or HWilliams to be high on his list if including the guys without title.

 

Well picked up. keep well.

 

Great stuff.