Post your Super Middleweight 168 ATG Top 10 list

In my opinion there's lots of things you have to take into consideration.

Black and white stats alone, don't cut it.

It took Joe ten years to unify the division. In 2004, he told everybody that he wanted and needed to move up to 175. This was before Kessler and Lacy had done much. But he then had a change of heart, stayed, and ended up having great wins against Lacy and Kessler.

What Joe did was great. But will other fighters have the same amount of patience to wait that long? Will they be content to wait for an opportunity to unify? Everyone's circumstances are different.

I don't think Ward will ever unify. I think he'll move to 175 soon. He's got nothing to prove, and he'd have to fight a guy like Froch again to unify. What's the point? Unless it was for a huge some of money, I don't think he'd be bothered.

It would be unfair to say that Joe has a better resume, because he unified, whereas Andre hasn't. I don't want to hate on Joe, but I believe that he eventually unified the division, through a lack of ambition. He had the opportunity to fight at 175 much earlier than he did, but he wasn't interested.

Roy Jones could have stayed at 168, and waited for other opportunities to unify. But he left the division after 6 fights, and unified at 175.

So I think everybody needs to do a fair and objective breakdown, before deciding on who's the best.

 

Bub,

But what's the criteria?

Joe has the best stats.

But I would have Roy at number one, because at his peak at 25/26, I don't think he could/would have been beaten at the weight.

Joe turned pro in 93, and had a 15 year career. It took him 14 years to unify the division.

But is that a fantastic achievement, considering how great he was, the quality of opposition that he fought, and how weak the division was, especially from 99-2004?

I'm not sure.

I think a few guys could have unified the division, under different circumstances.

 

1. Joe Calzaghe
2. Nigel Been
3. Chris Eubank
4. Andre Ward
5. Roy Jones Jr
6. Carl Froch
7. James Toney
8. Steve Collins
9. Mikkel Kessler
10. Chong Pal-Park

/thread