When you consider that fighters like Langford, Greb, & Conn have fought (& possibly peaked) in the 161-168 lb range, the answer is a whopping "no."
Depends on your definition of ATG and SMW. i.e. whether you limit to boxers who officially competed at SMW and then just fights contested in that divison. He's in the top 10 SMWs of all time based solely on fights officially contested in that divison. That 10 is light on quality compared to those in the original 8 weight divisions, for obvious reasons.
Yes. He is. Surely top 10, arguably top 5 depending whether you take catchweight fights between 161-168 pre-80s to be SMW bouts. Beat Abraham, Pascal, Kessler, Groves, Dirrell, and Bute, on top of giving Andre Ward a very uncomfortable time. 80,000 at Wembley, come on!
I don’t know to be honest. The things that define what an “ ATG” is are not always very clear to me unless we’re referring to an obvious example like Joe Louis, Ray Robinson, Roberto Duran and others within that same fraternity. Might be a good thread topic to start. As for Carl Froch, I’ll say that he was definitely an excellent fighter
He's a top 10 Super Middleweight of all time possibly top 5 if you like quality over quantity in regards to some of the other Super Middleweights like Chris Eubank. But obviously the Super Middleweight division doesn't have a long history and despite Froch having a very good resume i don't consider him a great. Especially when you're comparing Froch to the likes of Calzaghe, Toney, RJJ, Ward, Canelo, i don't think he's quite on that level.
he is a great fighter, there is no question about that, but he wouldn't automatically equate to Top Placements over ALL of the Great MW's cum L-HW's throughout Boxing history, there are just far too many great fighters in that range to compare him too.
ATG No. Excellent fighter yes. Career reminds somewhat of Povetkin. Both a little light on total number of wins, Sort of a brief career in that regard. But lot of good scalps. No embarrassing losses either (Ward, Kessler- Wlad, Joshua). In brief history of super middleweight division he can make top 10 yes.
