Junior Middleweight: A Dreary Desolate Barren Dystopic Languid Shell Of A Division.

For quite some time the Junior Middleweight division has been hyped primarily by American fans as being a strong division, when in reality that couldn't be further from the truth. We Americans tend to eat up everything the media feeds us with a spoon, and for what its worth the Junior Middleweight division has been force fed to us on a fairly regular basis for awhile now by Al Haymon, Showtime and various other outlets, so its easy to see why so many may actually buy into that line of thinking. TV exposure dominates most peoples mindset, "if they're on TV they must be good, after all they're famous, we've heard of them, they're definitely a-side," it doesn't matter how average they may be as in ring performers as long as they've fought on TV a few times that means that Fighter A's resume is better than Fighter B's resume, since Fighter B has never been seen by American audiences, which is an incredibly idiotic way to view this very international sport. Simply put most Americans think the JMW is great because most JMW's fighters are Americans and are a constant presence on American TV, the same thing applies to the Brits who are wild about Lightweight, even though as a whole its a pretty terrible division, but the Brits do well there so some of them think its awesome. Well let me happily sledgehammer the f*** out of this illusion. Or is it delusion? For you.

The Junior Middleweight Division is very average, in fact you could almost say its weak. And here is why.....

Erislandy Lara - Easily one of the most overrated fighters on ESB and many other forums, he's a one handed one trick pony who barely wins most of his matches, I've never seen a guy with so many near draws get so much obsessive love from fanboys. If any other fighter had the career of Lara they'd be considered a midcard attraction, almost dare I say a gatekeeper to separate the men from the boys. He had well deserved draws against Molina and Martirosyan, looked poor against Canelo, was beaten up by Angulo before lucking out and landing a shot that cause a freak injury on a rampaging Perro. Well he did beat Paul Williams using the exact same strategy as Carlos Quintana so whoopty doo. He deserves credit for outclassing Trout, but it was a battle between two slick defensive counterpunching southpaws, Trout was out of his element and came in with a terrible game plan. Lara who pretends like he's some boogeyman that all should fear, is coming off of what should have been yet another draw over the very average Vanes Martirosyan, but of course he was supposed to win this one walking away to clear up a blemish on his record, well he did no better this time than he did the first time, but the judges didn't care and gave him a bull**** lopsided UD regardless. And in lieu of the real boss fighting at Caneloweight this guy is the friggin kingpin of the division.

Demetrius Andrade - The oh so scary bad bad man of the division, the man who should be feared by all, the man they call Boo Boo, the man who... wait what the hell has he done to earn this fearsome reputation exactly?:think Oh that's right he barely outpointed The Nightmare Vanes Martirosyan.... so what.. so did Kassim Ouma but he didn't get any credit for it. And unlike Ouma Andrade got dropped along the way by Vanes. His other big win is that amazing all time great world beater Brian Rose. Otherwise known as the guy who was KO1'd by Kell Brook victim Carson Jones, and some guy named Max Maxwell. The rest of Boo Boo's resume is littered with a vast array of rusty tin cans. Andrade has done virtually nothing to earn the terrifying reputation he has, fine he's slick and counter punches, so do most of the Junior Middleweight division.

Jermall Charlo - Otherwise known as the good twin, and how has he earned that reputation? By KOing a bunch of bums, well he does have a KO win over K9 Bundrage, but Sechew Powell beat him to it by 2 rounds as did Joel Julio, anyone with a punch can stop K9, and anyone with a slight skillset can outpoint him. Other than that no one of real note, most of them looked like they were scrounged up in some bowling alley somewhere and brought in to slaughtered for the adoring masses, who would be none the wiser. Then his big test came against Austin Trout and as I expected the good Charlo got the hell exposed out of him, Trout slipped almost everything he threw for the last 6 or 7 rounds of the fight and was backing him up and beating him down, Trout probably should have gotten the nod or at the very least a draw. Big heavy handed Jermall couldn't drop a guy than Daniel Dawson had out on his feet. Once the match was over all talk of him moving up to MW was promptly put on the back burner.:hey

Jermell Charlo - The average twin, his best win is over a badly weight drained Gabriel Rosado, who he ran like hell from all night. He was exposed as the average boxer he is by once again by Martirosyan, in a match that should have gone to Vanes or at the very least should have been a draw, and then further exposed by the incredibly glass jawed John Jackson who was brought in to be a victim, and a victim he was but before that he put on a boxing clinic easily outpointing Jermell every round up until the KO, and Andy Lee had already beat him to that with a sensational 2014 KO of the year contender on Jackson. He will never amount to anything, it took him 6 rounds to take out Alcine who was stopped by Matthew Macklin in 1.

Liam Smith - Beefy the thoroughly average Smith brother who lost every round to John Thompson until John gassed and he KO'd him to win his paper title. He seems mildly re****ed and doesn't have even a semblance of what you could call skill. He's a schooling or brutal KO waiting to happen, aside from his win over Galarza KO2 victim Thompson he's fought no one of any real significance, just a bunch of poor Euro level guys who you wouldn't recognize even if I listed them for you. Callum is the far better technician in the family, and has the far better resume, in fact Stephen does too.

Jarrett Hurd - Another guy named Swift who thinks just because he stopped the below average caveman Frank Galarza that he's ready for Jermall Charlo, but considering the fact that Galarza had two draws against losers, outboxing him isn't that hard. He's just another loudmouth guy imitating Floyd Mayweather Jr. He has no great wins to prove he's worth even mentioning in the discussion.

Willie Nelson - He's already exposed several fighters like Tony Harrison, John Jackson and Yudel Jhonson he's decent but nothing spectacular. Due to his at times defenseless style and wild winging shots, he's a vicious KO waiting to happen, he was rocked several times by Arroyo, Cuello and Grajeda and got schooled by Vanes Martirosyn, he'll be a gatekeeper soon if he's not already.

Erickson Lubin - I like The Hammer and I want to root for him since he's from Florida but he was dropped pretty hard by Norberto Gonzalez, the footage of it has seemingly disappeared, as far as his power goes it took him as long to get rid of Lora as it took Thurman years ago, and we now know how overrated Keith's power was. Lubin is good against guys he's supposed to look good against, but with his weak chin and so so skills I'm not getting my hopes up.

Vanes Martirosyan - Well since he's partially exposed half the guys I've listed thus far that must mean he's really good right? Or it could just mean that they are just really average. Vanes does nothing that great, he's tenacious and has a good beard, that's about it. Yet this thoroughly average fighter has been able to have close fights with most of the top fighters in the division, which proves how weak the division truly is. He's a good fighter but nothing near special.

Tony Harrison - I had high hopes for Tony, since he was one of the last pupils from Kronk I had to root for him. But the moment he stepped up his power seemingly disappeared against a guy with a weak chin like Willie, he did well outboxing Nelson until Nelson knocked him the **** out. I thought it might be a mere fluke until Cecil McCalla of all people who is a feather fist had him out on his feet as well. They had to get his morale up by dragging in poor Fernando Guerrero to be his victim in his last fight. Tony will never be a top talent because of the horrid glass his packing.

Charles Hatley - He was finally the guy who lucked out and caught Mundine at the end and finished him off, he was basically Anthony's Grover Wiley, Hatley is ranked high because of that performance, but since he was put down by Richard Gutierrez and KO1'd by Lanardo Tyner.:rofl Don't get your hopes up with this one.

There's a litany of other fighters who are flawed and while they may score an upset here and there, they will never be top dogs like the mediocre German Jack Culcay, the rugged Mexicans Jorge Cota and Daniel Sandoval who have a few losses between them. Coceres from Argentina is basic and most likely a future Charlo victim, Oscar Molina and Domonique Dolton were both tentative disappointments in their match against one another, both seemed scared of getting hit and scared to let their hands go. Terrell Gausha looks like another bust from the 2012 US Olympic team, he put on a terrible performance against Trout KO victim Grajeda, that is not a good sign.

 

There are 4 fighters who I'm quite fond of though.

Austin Trout - Still one of the best all around guys a JMW capable of beating almost everybody in the division, maybe even Lara in a rematch with a different gameplan, his win over Cotto and impressive performances exposing Charlo and Canelo puts him a level above most of the divisions future and current players.

Julian Williams - The man to beat in the division, his skill level is above all previously listed fighters and he's the only one I could see having a successful transition to MW, he's quickly becoming the GGG of JMW, there's a reason no one is aching to fight him, because he's a badass both offensively and defensively.

Liam Williams - He's the real one to watch from the UK- he's far more skilled and a better all around fighter and maybe a harder hitter than Beefy.

Michel Soro - The French African slick counter puncher is a force to be reckoned with, he's building up a decent resume with KO wins over Tapia and Blandamura and what could have been a win over Antoine Douglas. Although I'm not sure if he knows what he is since he can't make his mind up between fighting at MW and JMW.

What makes a division hot?

When a division is dominated by one fighter who is head and shoulders above all that inhabit it, its usually considered weak, usually because no one can wrap their head around how one fighter can be so damn good, but the reality is sometimes that's just the reality, Manny and Floyd were just that much better than everyone in the divisions they fought in, their opponents weren't weak, they were just too strong. Same applies to Wlad at HW, and Calzaghe, Ward and Froch at SMW during their runs.

But some try to claim when a division has lot of very competitive hard to score matches that those are the truly hot divisions, because they're all good and around the same level. Kind of similar to what happened with HW in the 70's with Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton etc. and that may certainly be the case sometimes.... but sometimes its not, sometimes its just a lot of average guys who around the same level who give each other competitive fights because they're not capable of anything else, they have no second gear, they have no ability to adjust, they have no power to be the difference maker, they're just okay, but nothing special, and that in a nutshell is how I view the Junior Middleweight Division.

Nothing special, and pretty average. The truth may hurt, but come to terms with it, because if you continue to delude yourselves when the bottom falls out it will be much more painful if you never see it coming. Its merely a transitional shell of a division for guys who aren't quite big enough or good enough to compete at Middleweight and are a little too big to be Welters.

And one other thing if they're all so good, and Middleweight is so very average, then why aren't they chomping at the bit to move up and clean out this weak ass division, because they as Boxers know more than the fans, they're in no rush for a reason, because they know they'll all get their asses kicked.:deal

But if it makes you feel better, go ahead and keep holding on to your delusion that this profoundly weak unsteady division is strong.:rofl Cling to it with all your might.

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