Robinson, Greb, Hopkins, Hagler, Monzon, Jones (dark horse)-- All in a MW Round Robin

Anyway SJS, good read.

I'm just gonna shorten this up because ESB ate my goddamn essay

Jones is being underrated a lil here, when people think of him at MW, they think of the win vs a rather green Hopkins (a fight in which he won handily, no pun intended). Also take note that his last fight at 160 was only one fight removed from his best win on his resume which was an undefeated James Toney. People harp on him over his chin but during his prime years his chin was decent and combined with solid reflexes I'd give him the slight edge over prime Hopkins at 160, and SRR.

SRR was the GOAT. But he was also a very small MW. What I mean by small I'm addressing 2 things- body size and literal weight. This is one of the issues when pairing up modern fighters with yesterdays' as the weigh-ins were same day vs prior day. Robinson pre-1st retirement would regularly weigh-in well under the MW limit at 157 or so, and this would carry on to fight night. He did have great speed for a middleweight, and much of his body "size" was in his legs (thighs, glutes) which is why he looked pretty thin but still packed power. Because of this I'd have him the favorite against Hagler and Hopkins. Despite having losses when he reached MW, he avenged the majority of them and they were all top level HOFers. If this tournament was held multiple times I'd believe he'd probably end up 2-3 most consistently, whereas someone like Jones would have a greater variance in results.

Monzon. With his wins, sheer number of defenses and his dominance, and most of his top level ones he did twice I'd wager that he has the best chance of coming out of this one 6-0. The man to give him most trouble would be Hagler given his cast iron chin, followed by Hopkins.

Hagler is one of the greatest at this weight if not the GOAT. He has a solid southpaw game as well to disrupt his opponents, though he has been given some problems with boxers. While the Leonard fight obviously occurred past his peak, shades of this problem were also visible in the Mugabi and Duran fights. The cast iron jaw he displayed at the Hearns fight showed he has the best chin out of all the guys though and would have him at 50-50 with Monzon, but unfortunately I'd have him the underdog against Robinson and Hopkins.

Hopkins would have his best chance employing his size on many of these fighters, since he was a really big MW, in fact coming down from LHW originally. Also probably the most intelligent fighter with dirty tactics but also the one with nearly the least work rate which would be his biggest caveat against these guys. His matchups against almost all of the other guys would be brutal yet legendary. Everyone wanted to see the Jones rematch, though I'd have Jones winning that one. Against Monzon could get really crazy, possibly a Whitaker-Mayweather or a Bowe-Golota type match (but in ATG scope). Hagler-Hopkins, again everyone would wanna see that. I think he'd struggle with Robinson's speed a little though.

Although I said that Jones is the wildcard in this matchup, I think Greb is just as much so since there's no footage of him but the resume doesn't lie. His win over Tunney gets overhyped a little since Tunney only lost once, but Tunney went on to defeat him multiple times. I'm risking underrating him heavily in this H2H matchup but only justified because times do change and while the saturation of fighters in each era can vary, the flow of information and pool of viewable skills can only constantly grow. I can't say too much about him since his time was well before the others and I don't have too much info on the guy.

Monzon
Robinson
Hagler
Jones
Hopkins
Greb

Having some fighters over the others is not grounds in any way for discrediting them or what they did, they're all great fighters in a rather large time-span. It's very subjective and takes little away from their accomplishments.

 

I understand what you mean with the training methods and nutrition, but the flow of information and precedents set before certain fighter's primes are what make these fighters. If you took Ali in a time machine back he'd still do fantastically but this is because he's seen what he's seen by his time, it makes him who he is. That in itself is an advantage, and a non-separable one.

 

Who said anything about Calzaghe?? He'd probly break his hand slapping Hagler's chin