Which was the best era of the middleweight division? I feel that while the division has been strong throughout history no period really stands out. For an era to be really considered great I think that it should have: Storng, but not necessarily great, champion(s) A group of quality contenders of various styles A number of great fights Plus the top fighters of the era should face each other. My suggestions would be: The Ketchel/Papke/Klaus era (ca 1910) Set the standard for the division as the home for brawlers and slugfests and with probably the most charismatic champ ever in Ketchel. Legends like Phiily Jack OBrien and Sullivan twins being around, adding to the flavour. The Greb/Flowers/Walker era (mid20s) Unpredictability of results: Greb beat Walker who beat Flowers who in turn beat Greb. Flowers being a black champion during times when color bar otherwise was in effect. Add that future LHW greats Loughran, Delaney. Slattery and Rosenbloom were campaigning as MWs during the era. End of WW II to SRRs first retirement: The Zale-Graziano slugfests; Cerdan and Lamotta; SRR winning, losing and regaining title. Great rivalries, a number of classics and with SRR arguably the greatest MW ever. On the negative greats like Burley, Holman Williams and Lytell were denied the chance to fight for the title. Mid 60s: No outstanding champ but a succesion of good ones (Tiger, Giardello, Griffith and Benvenuti) fighting it out in serials. Contenders like Archer, Carter and Rodrigues covering a wide spectre of styles. Height of Monzon era: Outstanding champ in Monzon with a strong rival in Valdez. Griffith still good during first part of the era, Briscoe a title threat throughout and Fighters like Bouttier and Mundine bringing on a bit of international flavour. First half of the 90s: Incredible depth of talent as the division wasa sort of crossroad with great fighters coming from divisions below or moving on to glory at higher weights. Quality champs like Nunn, Toney and RJJ having good title reigns and providing contrast of styles. This era also saw Julian and John David Jackson, McClellan; Kalambay, Castro, (old) McCallum, (young) Hopkins and for a while Benn and Eubank. Unfortunately the title was fragmented and some of the major fights were to take place at 167 lbs. These are my suggestions. For sheer quantity of class fighters Id probably go with the 90s era while the Zale-to-SSR era probably has the edge when it comes to classic bouts. Like to hear your opinions.
I agree with your two choices I see it between the End of WWII to SRR's first retirement (I see the addition of guys like Burley, Williams, Lytell, etc as a plus as the era was stacked with great fighters even if they were denied the title) or the era between Hagler's reign and Hopkins'.
Either of these gets my vote. And overall, I'd say these were the two best eras for boxing in general.
I don´t think there are era´s that are superior than others. It´s more about the image of fighters than about superiority. On average the talent level is about the same in every era. Some makes out a bit more than others but there´s not much of a difference. But nice that you mentioned a fighter like Klaus. He rarely get´s mentioned.
How about 40s - Charles, Moore, Burley, Holman WIlliams, Sugar Ray RObinson, Lloyd Marshall, Lamotta, Cerdan Or 90s - Hopkins, Roy Jones, McCallum, Toney, G-Man, Eubank, Benn, Julian JAckson, Collins, Watson
Despite making a pit-stop at 160 for a short time, I never really considerd "Toney or Jones" as TRUE 160 pounders in the early 1990's... And, I never really bought into my main man 'Roberto Duran' as being a solid 160 pounder, either.... Peace... MR.BILL
I also agree with your two choices, but I do think the 20's could have been as good as the 90's or 40's-60's...if only Greb vs Wlaker or Greb vs Tunney were on film.
Underrated era this, and fully deserves mention is any 'greatest era's' list for Middleweights. Carpentier also made a brief appearance around this time, against Klaus I believe it was. The Ketchel - Papke rivalry was as good as pretty much any out there too. The only thing stopping it from being one of my choices was that there was a little too much splintering of the title at times and rival claimants emerging. The immediate post-war era is definitely one of my choices, the other I'd have to think about.
