2015/2016......... What A Terribly Brutal Two Years For American Middleweights.

There are a few Divisions that Americans are doing relatively well in, however the Middleweight Division isn't one of them. I haven't been very high on many of the so called top Middleweight prospects that the US has had to offer and this year has proven my doubts to be well-founded. There's been exposures left and right in some cases embarrassingly so. Let's take a look.


Peter Quillin while he was exposed to a certain extent against Rosado, who stunned him and took a few rounds off of him, Rosado hadn't done quite enough to take the lead on the scorecards at the time of the unfortunate stoppage, N'Dam exposed his limitations as well by winning virtually every second of their match that he wasn't being dropped in. But finally Andy Lee handed him a blemish for his record by dropping him for the first time and winning several rounds late into the fight, Lee was scared of Quillin's power and Quillin was equally scared of Lee's, while Quillin wasn't brutally exposed by his draw against Lee, the match showed him to be a very flawed fighter that many others will be able to build on Lee's success in the future.

Dominic Wade another hot young prospect that many thought was destined for success, he was matched against a shot to hell Sam Soliman on a ShoBox card as his coming out party, after all Soliman was dropped countless times by the shell of Jermain Taylor and was hopping around the ring like Pegleg Pete the Pirate so it was an easy win on paper for Wade. Well I guess Wade wasn't ready or the big time quite yet, because he was basically shut out from bell to bell by the awkward and incredibly frustrating Soliman, who viciously upset the apple cart by exposing Wade big time, and what did Soliman get for his winning effort a robbery on the scorecards for Wade of course.

Tony Harrison a hard punching Middleweight who I had very high hopes for was pitted against the very average Willie Nelson who was staggering around like a drunk on several occasions against Cuello and Grajeda and was beaten down by Vanes Martirosyan. So it was almost a guarantee that Harrison would blow Willie out of the ring, yet Tony fought cautiously and used his jab to control Nelson the majority of the match and on the few occasions that Harrison decided to let his hands go, his punches seemed to have little effect on Willie, his power obviously overrated. Harrison boxed intelligently for the majority of the match and was winning it on my card but in a shocking surprise to many viewers including myself he got KO'd by the feather fisted Nelson in the 9th.

Terrell Gausha pronounced Gaushea is a top prospect at Junior Middleweight from the 2012 Olympic team who's been pushed fairly slow making a few appearances on Showtime Extreme undercards and ShoBox had his big coming out party on the undercard of Broner-Porter for PBC on NBC against Luis Grajeda, while he won the match, it was a very lackluster performance, he dropped Grajeda but he couldn't finish him, and pay for it by Grajeda pushing the action and making the remainder of the match far closer than it should have been and stunned him a few times. Gausha who many thought had good power failed to stop Grajeda, something Austin Trout of all people was able to accomplish, by making Luis quit on his stool.

Danny Jacobs and Caleb Truax were both part of one of the most boring matches of the year, both of these American Middleweights put forth a mind numbingly dull effort which has largely been forgotten by most fans due to it being on the undercard of the equally atrocious Dirrell Vs. Jack. Due to his KO loss to Pirog, Jacobs is still terrified of anyone with a punch and fought Truax intelligently but in my opinion slightly scared of a guy who couldn't KO and lost to Jermain Taylor. Abysmal effort by both fighters, while at least Jacobs did manage to finally wake up and go all out to get the stoppage late.

Thomas Lamanna aka Cornflake is a feather fisted fighter from New Jersey but still a fighter who was undefeated and some thought he was a legit talent, well he got shut out by Action Antoine Douglas for 6 rounds and dropped 3 times in the 6th leading to a stoppage.

Willie Monroe Jr. who is a very talented fighter, who was on quite a roll with a string of wins over the likes of Vera, Kopylenko, Bondrovas and Brandon Adams, at least acquitted himself quite honorably in his losing performance against GGG. Willie who is by nature a retreating counter puncher had little success against GGG early in the fight with his style being dropped twice early but instead on continuing this losing strategy he decided to man up and go toe to toe with one of the most feared punchers in the sport and at times had a degree of success. Willie wasn't exposed, he lost to one of the best fighters in the world, and looked good in losing, he was put in with GGG far too early but hopefully his career can rebound.

Undefeated Derrick Webster got beaten senseless by undefeated Russian Arif Magomedov who basicakky shut him out from start to finish in their 10 round match, Webster looked terrible, he ran from Arif the whole match in spite of having a 6 inch height advantage and reach advantage, he was dropped twice late in the fight in an abhorrent performance.

And that leaves Antoine Douglas who did look very good against Lamanna, and KO'd Istvan Szili in 3, so he's still a decent looking prospect right? That's debatable he was almost outclassed last year by the severely underrated Michel Soro on a ShoBox card taking the first blemish of his career with a Majority Draw decision with Soro closing strong in the second half of the fight had it been a twelve rounder he may have had his first loss.


So pretty bad right?

However just because the Middleweight Division is lackluster in the United States that doesn't mean the division is bad, its just that we aren't performing at the highest level anymore, there are some real beasts in the MW Division and we definitely need to step up our game if we want to be competitive with the rest of the world for the foreseeable future.

Postscript 2015: Danny Jacobs was almost KO'd by Sergio Mora who can't punch through a paper bag and then Peter Quillin was viciously blitzed in the blink of an eye by the same Danny Jacods in a horrific 1 round beatdown.


Postscript 2016: Avtandil Khurtsidze destroyed Antoine Douglas stopping him in the 10th after dropping him twice, he took a hellacious beating. Golovkin thoroughly destroyed Dominic Wade in 2 rounds dropping him 3 times along the way.

 

If it keeps going the way its going........ Webster's f**ked.:deal

 

No the Division isn't ****, its just ****ty here, which gives a lot of us the excuse to act like its terrible. Just because a Division isn't going well for us it doesn't mean its bad.:deal

 

I will agree with you on one thing, everyone is scared of GGG especially Canelo and Cotto and they probably won't fight him. Americans only care about divisions we're successful in, its a pattern with us.

As far as Haymon goes I wish HBO and Haymon would both knock off their BS so his fighters can fight on HBO, but does he really want his fighters to face anyone on HBO, like GGG or Lemieux, probably not.

 

I'm hoping if it goes the distance they don't rob Arif.