Karl Mildenberger 1966 vs Axel Schulz 1995

Too much depth in the division's history. He's closer to 15 in my book.

 

For me it's still Max Schmeling.
I'm not a Gustav (Bubi) Scholz expert though.
From what I know: He was a hell of a fighter, highly talented and southpaw. His record was 88 wins (46 KOs), 2 losses and 6 draws and he was never knocked out. He boxed between WW and LHW, but MW was his preferred division.

He started boxing rather late at the age of 17. One year later (1948) his pro career began without having had a single official amateur bout. In the following years he remained undefeated. He beat some decent journeymen soundly but more on a national and European level. He was a very promising boxer on the rise and bigger fights in America were planned for the future.
But unfortunately, in 1955 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Thus, he couldn't fight for one and a half year. It wasn't sure if he'd be able to box again but he started pretty early (against medical advice).

Later he fought e.g. against the excellent Charles Humez twice (lost on points and win via TKO).
He defeated Peter Müller twice soundly (by KO in round 3 and KO in round 1). The iconic Peter Müller is probably best known for once knocking out a referee but he was a good and experienced fighter as well who fought against many excellent fighters during his career like: Gene Fullmer, Carmen Basilio, Joey Giardello and Dick Tiger. He even defeated Joey Giardello and Ralph Jones once.

Scholz also defeated some other good boxers like Mike Holt, Chic Calderwood, Giulio Rinaldi... and had a draw against Don Fullmer.

In 1962 he even fought against Harold Johnson for the LHW-Championship but lost, allegedly in a close fight.

The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: #4 (1958), #2 (1959), #2 (1960) as a MW and #7 (1961), #4 (1962), #10 (1963), #7 (1964) as a LHW.
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All in all, I think Max Schmeling is greater p4p.
There are just too many “ifs” about Gustav Scholz. How good could he be without tuberculosis, with an amateur background…? How would he have fared against many other world class middleweights at the time?

Max Schmeling, on the other hand, was world champion in the marquee division and had big wins against Joe Louis, Jack Sharkey & Co.
Not to mention that he might be ranked higher today if he would be American or at least if he wouldn't fight under the criminal Nazi regime (borderline robbery against Sharkey II, no title fight against Braddock...)

 

Wow. How did this comment on featherweights end up here?

 

GREAT POST!

I never recognized Neusel and Neuhaus. But my feeling is they can compete with Axel H2H...and Neusel will give him much trouble. I see it like:

1. Schmeling
-big gap-
2. Mildenberger
-even bigger gap-
3. (Maybe) Schulz