ATG Middleweight Chin Tier list-The Top Forty

Watching from the periphery I wasn't expecting so many titanium chins , but I can't disagree with any of the choices.It all adds to our knowledge.

 

Excellent summary!

 

Thanks Mcvey, much appreciated

 

I'm happy to go with Fitz as iron at the least and Walker titanium.

 

Iron for Fitz, Titanium for Walker.

 

I think Apsotoli is one of the most underrated MWs of all time, where I rank him #12, higher than I've seen him ranked by anyone else.

Wins over Freddie Steele, Marcel Thil, Young Corbet III, Solly Krieger x 2, Lou Broulliard, Babe Risko, Paul Pirrone, Babe Marino x 2 and Sweden Berglund, make for a fine resume.

I won't hold a final round TKO defeat to the great Freddie Steele in only Apostoli's 7th fight nor a stoppage to the 173lbs Melio Bettina against him too much.

The Volks stoppage was on a cut way past his prime, so that leaves the stoppage loss to Cerfino Garcia, which isn't a good look given Garcia was only a LMW and Fred was knocked down 3 times. Tbf, though small at MW, Garcia was a decent puncher.

If it wasn't for the Garcia stoppage, Apostoli would be a lock for iron imo, but as it is he just falls into the very top end of solid, for me.

 

In 121 x fights Teddy Yarosz was only stopped once.

With only 17 stoppage wins himself, Yarosz usually had to go the long route, boxing more rounds, more rounds he could have been stopped in.

He fought Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall x 2, Billy Conn x 3, Solly Kreiger, Al Gainer, Nate Bolden, Ben Brown x 2, Vince Dundee x 3, Pete Latzo, Babe Risko x 3, Paul Pirrone, Ken Overlin, Georgie Abrams, Lou Broulliard and Tommy Freeman.

Only Risko, in one of their 3 fights, stopped him.

Has any MW in history fought such quality opposition with one or less career stoppages? If so, I can't think of him.

I can only see iron or titanium for Yarosz and I think either is reasonable.

Perhaps I'm unduly influenced by that extraordinary resume, but I'll guess titanium on the strength of it.

 

Apostoli - Solid.
Yarosz - Titanium.

Let me add that Apostoli was down three times against Melio Bettina (at 175) in his next fight after getting stopped by Garcia. The subsequent immediate rematch was when he was stopped by Bettina. Apostoli was also dropped three times late that year against Tony Zale. This all takes me down to the respectable rating of solid.

Yarosz can't be anything but titanium. 13 years, 127 bouts and huge intangibles in his only stoppage loss. He took a punch to the body in the last round vs Tait Littman that was so debilitating he collapsed in the dressing room afterward. He went 15 in the Risko rematch despite getting dropped multiple times earlier in the bout where he was still hampered by a still dodgy knee. He had surgery after this.

 

Pre-emptive titanium for Les Darcy.