Rubio is a solid challenger.

No he wasn't. :?


He was considered his 2nd best middleweight opponent after lineal champ Taylor. He was certainly viewed as being a huge step up from Pavlik's title defense immediately prior, Gary Lockett. (if a step down from Pavlik's last actual fight, the Hopkins loss, at light heavy)

Certainly if anyone thought he was a joke heading in (and nobody did) he earned their respect when all was said and done.

 

One more bullet point, and one correction to an oversight...

Rubio has popped the cherries of four previously unbeaten middleweights and one previously unbeaten light middleweight, all WBC top 15 ranked when he fought them - all by KO. Jose Varela 16-0 (11), David Toribio 12-0 (7), Wilson Santana 11-0 (7), David Lemieux 25-0 (24), Jorge Cota 16-0 (16) - total combined record of 80-0 (65). He fought three other unbeatens in his career, in his losses to 8-0 (8.) Baby Roman (later avenged by KO, but Jesus Soto Karass had beaten Rubio to Roman's cherry), 14-0 (12) Zaurbek Baysangurov (dropped and nearly KO1'ed by Rubio before taking control and boxing carefully to a decision), and 44-0-1 (31) Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (who Rubio gave absolute hell even though in RBR scoring it was a clear victory for the functional cruiserweight, rehydrating from 159 to 181lbs and prompting Rubio to successfully file suit against the WBC for not enforcing contractual mandatory drug testing on Chavez...). Now, while Golovkin would obviously be grouped with the unbeaten types who defeated Rubio (that is, world class talents like Baysangurov and Chavez) rather than any of the prospects he beat (none of whom to date has even contended for a world title, let alone held one) - but the point is that Rubio has eight times in his career fought unbeaten opponents, most of them with pretty high KO rates, and has never batted an eyelash striding confidently into the fray. He was competitive with all three of those who beat him and destroyed the five he beat.



Also, there was originally no mention of Murray there when listing top middleweights or those Rubio doesn't necessarily stand head and shoulders above. He is the current WBC silver champ and current #1 contender (just behind Rubio, who as interim champ is numberless but ahead of #1) and is taking on #9 Spada next, providing an opportunity for some comparative analysis with Rubio's domination of Spada in April. In addition to his alphabet ranking, Murray is consistently rated highly in h2h discussion by fans based largely on his performances going (rather controversially in both cases) 0-1-1 challenging Sergio Martinez and Felix Sturm back when both were seen as having something left. His best officially recorded W's are Bursak, Khomitsky x2, Blackwell, Navarro, and his run of Rea/Butler/Renda in the Prizefighter tourney back in 2008. Decent enough resume and rightfully in contention but outside those nights where he didn't get the nod he never has beaten anyone top shelf...and it has since become apparent just how badly Martinez and Sturm have been sliding (though debate is open as to when their declines really picked up speed and whether Murray fought versions of them worth crowing over). As for Martinez and Sturm, incidentally, they were omitted intentionally when listing top middleweights as by now it should be plain that both are dead men walking.

h2h, based on his struggles with Khomitsky (twice) - who is a very able veteran but not Rubio's peer in terms of the ammunition he is packing or his mastery of the pressuring craft or upset-scoring panache - I would probably not tip Murray, although based on his showings with Martinez and Sturm, if we are to assume they were even remotely themselves still when he fought them...as well as his dominance of fringe world class Maksim Bursak, you would have to figure it would be pretty close and competitive.