Assessing the Greatness of Alan Minter.

He was an awesome action fighter and a big time bleeder. Only seen a handful of his fights but I recall them all being bangers. Not an all timer for me, and probably two significant 'greatness classes' below the aforementioned Golovkin. Really interesting history and the fight with Hagler was a big deal, how it all played out with the riot etc. He has his chapter in boxing history for sure.

 

Sure there have been deaths in boxing, but nothing serious.

Alan Minter.

Great fighter though, but not that great for me to rank him amongst the all time greats.

 

Good fighter, underrated skills and a top bloke, but nowhere near the top 15 middleweights of all time. I thought he was beaten by Kevin Finnegan in two of their three fights and one was a flat out robbery. Kevin also gave Hagler far more trouble. Always good to listen to Alan, loved his quote when he asked his doctor how he could stop getting cut-up so often in fights "stop getting hit so much' (was the docs reply).

 

He was a very good fighter if not great but handicapped by his cuts ... definitely underrated .. tough as nails .. the Hagler that dethroned him was an absolute monster to be able to do what he did ... Marvin at his peak ..

 

My top 20 MWs of all time, based solely on fights contested in & around that division:

1. Monzon
2. Greb
3. Hagler
4. SRR
5. Hopkins
6. M. Gibbons
7. Ketchel
8. Steele
9. Ryan
10. Burley
11. Williams
12. Apostoli
13. GGG
14. Fitzsimmons
15. Walker
16. LaMotta
17. Yarosz
18. Dillon
19. Flowers
20. Tiger

Minter was a fine fighter, but I can't see an argument for him breaching him my 20.

 

I would take fellow brits Sibson, Graham, Benn, Eubank an Watson to beat him

 

Not sure why Minter would be in the argument.

He held the title and that's about it.

Ironically I am trying to create a fictional boxer from that era/scene right now.

 

Hi Buddy.
Your list is the template for the MW rankings, absolutely finate, every fairly newish and green poster would do well to put your list in their fav bar, and revisit on a regular basis, the MWs are a very contentious division particularly at the very top, to wit I have your 1/2 around the other way, but not a falling out issue obvs, very pleasing to see The Fighting Bellhop rated just outside the top ten, has been a fav of mine since the first article I ever read, accompanied by a photo of Whitey Bimstein tapping his hands in muted black and white, Whitey " he was a strange fighter, tough as nails, and feared no one, I once pulled his leg and told him we had a secured a fight with Louis, how long before we go to camp was his straight faced reply, on the other hand sometimes he couldnt/wouldnt fight, try as i might, even slapping him hard, was to no effect, he just couldn't fight " the man himself " I loved to get up close and hit em hard to the body, punchers never hurt me "
when I see your name I know wisdom is about to follow, stay safe hombre.

 

Very good list. I’m happy to see you’ve put LaMotta there as he’s a personal favourite of mine. Quite a few people don’t rate him as an all time top 20 MW, but for me…with that rock hard head of his, that relentless swarming style that never let his opponents get a seconds rest, and him being the first man to ever defeat the great SRR (his only win out of six, I know, but it was the Great Ray Robinson after all)…he defo gets into my Top 20 too.

 

Alan Boza-Conteh?

 

Minter is probably a tad underrated on here but I can’t make any case for him being in the top 15-20 list.
A good fighter with good skills and decent power but unfortunately was prone to bleed and the fact he tended to like a tear up didn’t help him.

 

Minter was a very good middleweight but not a great one. Probably hits the lower reaches of all time top 30.

 

just an average champion who lost to an all time great.

 

Loved his fights against Kevin Finnegan, agree with most on here a very good fighter but not really an all time great