GOLDEN ERA OF MIDDLEWEIGHTS IS HERE: [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]MIDDLEWEIGHTS [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Weight Limit: 160 pounds[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This week[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Last Week[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Weeks in Ratings[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Fighter[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Record[/FONT] C C 87 KELLY PAVLIK 34-0 (30) 1 1 180 ARTHUR ABRAHAM 27-0 (22) 2 2 254 FELIX STURM 30-2-1 (13) 3 4 155 SEBASTIAN SYLVESTER 29-2 (14) 4 5 113 AMIN ASIKAINEN 24-1 (16) 5 6 41 RANDY GRIFFIN 24-2-3 (12) 6 7 107 JAVIER CASTILLEJO 62-8 (43) 7 9 24 DAVID LOPEZ 35-12 (22) 8 10 6 RAUL MARQUEZ 41-3-1 (29) 9 - 1 JAMES McGIRT JR. 19-1 (9) 10 - 1 MARCO ANTONIO RUBIO 42-4-1 (37)
In the 50s we had, Robinson, the tail end of Lamotta, Olson, FULMER, Pender, then followed TIGER, Giardello. That was the golden era well and trully at 160 imo.
Pavlik and Abraham are both very good, but not great, at least not yet. The rest are decent to ok fighters, not enough at all to call it a golden era.
Golden era my ass! lol! Its decent right now but Pavlik (and I'm a huge Pavlik fan) would get destroyed by Hagler, Hearns, Robinson and a younger B-hop
I think if you take 160-175, we are in a golden era. Champ: Joe Calzaghe (two Ring Belts) #1 - Kelly Pavlik (Ring Belt) #2 - Bernard Hopkins (Ring Top 10) #3 - Arthur Abraham (Undefeated, Title Holder) #4 - Chad Dawson (Undefeated, Title Holder) #5 - Mikkel Kessler (Defeated once, title holder) #6 - Antonio Tarver (title holder) #7 - Lucian Bute (Undefeated, Title Holder) #8 - Roy Jones Jr #9 - Glen Johnson #10 - Adrian Diaconu (Undefeated, Title Holder) Which leaves out Felix Sturm, Anthony Mundine, Dennis Inkin, Zsolt Erdei, Clinton Woods, Jermain Taylor, Carl Froch, Jeff Lacy, etc etc. From 160-175, we are in a golden era, considering fights of the 160lb champ are being talked about against the 175lb champ or 175 #2.
We have to good guys at the top who COULD be great but their is no depth to the division. Apart from Abraham, Pavlik can't even get any decent fights. He has to step up to get an opponent.
Pavlik and Abraham are both very good, but simply have not done enough to be considered great. We have only 1 fight at 160 that matters. We had two fights at 160 that I thought were important, but Wright made himself irrelevant when he turned down $1.5 million, and a slice of the PPV revenues, to fight Pavlik. That leaves Pavlik/Abraham, which is tenatively agreed to for early next year. After that there is no one at 160 who can be competitve with Pav or AA. Neither guy will ever be regarded as a great middleweight. We may ultimately remember both guys as great fighters, but not great middleweights. We are a very long ways from anything that could be called "A Golden Era" at 160. For some perspective on just how shallow the division really is; try to imgaine what Kelly Pavlik would do to the McGirt kid!
I wouldn't be so sure about that. Pavlik is a big strong hard punching and determined fighter. No one is a lock to destroy him. You named some great fighters but even they would have their hands full with Pavlik.
True. A guy like Sumbu Kalambay would've beaten any MW around today easily. This era pretty much sucks.
Along with those names from the 50's add Eduardo Lausse, Tiger Jones, Holy Mims, Joey Giambra, Rocky Castellani, Spider Webb, Rory Calhoun, Marcel Pigua, Carmen Basilio and a number of others. The 50's had the deepest talent pool ever.
You gotta be kidding me. Pavliks best opponent available is a 44yr old man. Half of those guys on that list are nothing special. Dude, the middle weight division isnt much better than the heavy weight divison. You're really smoking on something. What really makes me laugh is the fact that you made a list, LMAO! Goldne Era, RIGHT!
