Debating my top ten SMW list

He beat Chirino with just his left hand, after surgery on his right. Literally.

At one point he was ranked #1 by everyone.

 

We can rate him on a H2H basis, but not as the best.

 

Top Ten List of Super Middleweights

1 - Joe Calzaghe.

To this day he remains statistically the most successful fighter the division has ever seen. He won 44 fights at Super Middleweight, is the only man to have held all the major titles in the division, and has to his resume seven former World Champions at the weight.

H2H there's a stronger argument to rate him lower that first, but even then it's hard to justify him not being in the top five at the lowest.

2 - Andre Ward.

Ward is the second most successful fighter in the division's history. He won 29 of his fights in the division and won the WBC, WBA (Super) and Ring titles and, with the exception of Bute, defeated every top Super Middleweight of his era.

H2H he's a spoiler type fighter - which is a highly effective, if somewhat ugly, style - and, again, it would be hard to justify anything lower than top five.

3 - Roy Jones Jr.

H2H he's the strongest candidate and was something special in his prime, but he's hurt in this ranking by his few accomplishments in the division. He won the IBF Title and nothing else, and he missed out on so many top names of that era - he beat Toney, but he missed Benn and Eubank and Liles and Nunn and Little and Collins - and, ok, that wasn't entirely his fault, but it does leave his resume looking quite thin for the Super Middleweight division.

4 - Chris Eubank.

He was, statistically, the most successful Super Middleweight of the 1990's. He fought more top names within the division and he had made successful titles defenses than anyone else in that decade.

H2H I'd bet on him to give anyone a hard fight even if he came up short, because he was the kind of fighter who never gave up until the final bell. He had the dertermination and durability to see every fight out to its finish and was strong enough and powerful enough to be dangerous right until the final bell.

5 - James Toney.

I rate Toney below Eubank at Super Middleweight for two reason. First, his success within the division comes no where near Eubank's in terms of top names fought and successful title defence, and second, he really, really struggled with the weight and suffered for it.

Fantasy H2H, prime for prime stuff boosts him up my list, but I just cant rate him too highly for lack of accomplishment.

6 - Carl Froch

Froch fought every top fighter in the division once he reached World Level and, while he did lose to Kessler and Ward, he picked up the WBC, IBF and WBA (Regular) Titles so I rate him just a tiny bit higher than the next man.

7 - Nigel Benn

Benn held the WBC Title, which is why I rate a bit lower than Froch in terms of accomplishments, but only Eubank beat him in the 1990's for top names fought and successful title defenses, so I think he and Froch interchangable - that being said, Benn's victory over McClellan is tempting me to lift him up a place...

8 - Mikkel Kessler

Kessler was a two time WBC and two time WBA (Super) Champion, who also fought most of the top names of his era - from Siaca, Lucas and Beyer through Calzaghe and Ward to Froch - and he only lost to the last three (with the defeat to Froch coming at the very end of his career, three years after he'd beaten him). He was one of the top two or three Super Middleweights for almost a decade and I dont think any top ten list of Super Middleweights can exclude him.

9 - Sven Ottke

As much as it discomforts me to include him due to the several controversial decisions that went in his favour - not least of which was the Robin Reid fight - he has to be included because he had made 21 successful defences of his titles and unified the IBF and WBA belt. To be honest, he just escaped 10th place because I was torn out of three people of who should take the other place on the list.

10 - Marcus Beyer

I've gone with Beyer, because he won the WBC Title three times and was a top Super Middleweight for six years, with victories over three other top names, and its the longevity that counted for him in my view.

The other option was Frankie Liles, who was undoubtedly the better fighter and had the much bigger scalps of Little and Nunn, but he was only a top fighter within the division for a two year period - so H2H better, accomplishments worse.

Or Steve Collins, who, again, was the better fighter with the better scalp - Eubank, not he shot Benn - but Collins, again, was only a top fighter in the division for a two year period so his ranking, in my view, gets hurt a bit by that.

Of course, the ranking isn't static, and the fighters do change places from time to time, but I think I'd stick by the order of my top five 90% of the time.

 

I can't put Kessler, Ottke or Beyer anywhere near a top ten H2H. They aren't in the league of Hearns, Nunn, Watson, McClellan, McCallum, Littles, Liles, Frank Tate or Lindell Holmes, and would all be a deer in headlights facing a Barkley

 

There's also Graciano Rocchigiani!

 

Great post.

I can’t argue with any of that, apart from that Roy would always be my number 1 based on ability.

He was just better than everyone else.

He could have fought Collins had he have waited, but when he couldn’t get those others guys to fight him, he made the decision to move up to LHW for a new challenge.

Did you mean Little or Littles?

Littles had already been knocked out by Toney before Roy moved up.

Joe was great, but nowhere near as great as Roy. He just has the numbers on his side. But he would do having spent 14 years there.

Most of his opposition was against B and C class fighters.

Joe also missed guys like Ottke and Liles. Not his fault, but just pointing out that you can’t fight everybody.

 

Watching the Eubank-Wharton fight, Henry's eye is closed before the end of just the second round from jabs with the knuckle part of the glove, Eubank is throwing 6+ punch combos to body and head as early as the second, his success rate is 69% after 12 on the debut of Sky punch stats (not been exceeded since) and at one point he lands a 19-punch combination (again not been exceeded since). Wow.

At this point he is boxing's longest reigning unbeaten fighter/champion breaking all kinds of records in his 43rd fight, his sixth defense in 10 months after coming back from South Africa seven and a half weeks before. Plus he originated boxing arena entry that night, lowered on that crane.

 

Wharton was a better fighter that night v Eubank than any challenger of Jones, Calzaghe or Ward

 

This content is protected

 

Henry clearly froze vs Benn but was flat out here and never the same again after such a beating