In his prime, how would former champion Mike Rossman fare in fights against the cream of the current crop? According to the Ring's rankings, this includes the likes of: Gvozdyk Kovalev Bivol Marcus Browne Elidis Alvarez Beterbiev Badou Jack Sullivan Barrera Joe Smith Jr. Sven Fornling
Rossman was lightly regarded in his day for a reason. The win over Galindez came against a version of Galindez who was past his prime, who had been declining noticeably for a while. Plus, Galindez's win over Rossman was Galindez's last win ever, followed by defeats to Jessie Burnett & Marvin Johnson. Splitting his series with Mike Quarry 2-1 was solid, but the overall story of his career is largely told by losses to Galindez, Yaqui Lopez, & Dwight Qawi (that fight was basically an assault; one of the most violent bouts in Dwight's exceptionally violent career). It's pretty clear what level Rossman was at. Kovalev would light him up like the Vegas strip at dusk.
I'd take the version from the Galindez fights to beat Jack, Browne, Storm, Barrera and Fornling. Smith is probably a bad style for him, but I regard Rossman as the better fighter, and given the state of Kovalev right now, I'd pick Rossman to beat him but regard Kovalev as the better fighter. Unsure on Gvozdyk, we saw too little of him to truly know how good he was IMO. I'll have to wait and see how Bivol does, he looks the goods but also like Rossman's bread and butter. If he does well vs Beterbeiv, or any other elite pressure fighters, I'll reconsider. Beterbeiv vs Rossman is an awesome war, but with only one winner.
