This will sound sooo stupid, but I was wondering, Change the name of the Super Middleweight division to Heavyweight, and there you go, an exciting division that is exciting with exciting fighters that aren't ****ing robotic pussies.
It's not really that good, when you have Stieglitz at 5, and guys like Oosthuizen, Groves in top 10. Other than these two, who's the best prospect, Rodriguez? He didn't look good in his last 2 fights, or really ever that I've seen. 154 is much deeper, even LHW might be better.
LHW might be better. at 168 you have Ward and Bute who I classify them as elite and guys who will be consistently in top10 P4P, you have Kessler who was at the top and hold his ground against one of the best fighters ever at 168, who had eye problems and could be better after his operation, even if he is shot he is still a good fighter and a name, then you have Dirrell who is showing immense potential but seems to stumble on some character flaws a bit like Dawson. Then you have good fighters Like Froch, Bika, Johnson and Stieglitz in that order. You got Prospects like Groves, Oosthuizen, Degale who seems to try to make some noise, and are a bit known. You got guys like Abraham and Pavlik who try to raise from ashes and you got Unknown to most but good prospects like Anthony Dirrell,Shawn Estrada,Edwin Rodriguez(worst of them),Adonis Stevenson,Ezequeil Maderna,Marco Periban, Will Rosinsky who beat Rodriguez(robbed), Dominic Wade etc. You also have guys like Karoly Balzsay, Brian Magee, Rudy Markussen,Dimitri Sartison.
The best Divisions right now are Lightweight Featherweight Bantamweight Flyweight Super bantamweight Junior welterweight Junior Middleweight all of those 7 are better than 168 and produce FAR more exiting fights, it's not even close. All the 168 has is more know fighters than those 7 divisions, we all know Welter and even Middleweight are better divisions. 168 is like the 10th best Division in Boxing, which is not bad.
Pretty good rebuttal. You're right, it's better than LHW, but their top 5 is close, top 10 is close, SMW maybe has more fringe contenders and prospects. None as heavily hyped as Sillakh. And I wouldn't put Dawson's flaws at Dirrell's level. Dawson is proven world class who stumbled once (ahem Andrade). Would you be confident in Bute if he faces him?
There's been a lot of flux in these divs. For example, Rios, Guerrero, JMM moving up from LW, Gamboa moving up, Mares, Donaire, etc. Welter was weak for a bit, but now you got all these LWWs moving up. SMW has been pretty static, with Calzaghe (way back) and Pascal (not top 10 at SMW) as outgoing and Abraham incoming, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the main guys moved up soon. Not much incoming, other than hurricane Chavez
I always liked Dawson but he couldn't win against Pascal who's good fighter but god damn beatable, I'm very confident Bute beats Pascal, IDK how he matches up against Dawson. Tha fact is that a guy like Froch beat Pascal who's the 3rd top fighter at 168 at best. Pascal was the best LHW at a moment.
And Bute almost lost to Andrade, who also highly beatable. Actually Pascal has much better tools, except stamina (that's a big one), just fought a perfect tactical fight against Dawson who didn't tax his weakness. But that doesn't make Dawson a mentally weak fighter, you don't beat Tarver and Johnson twice if you're dumb or weak..
Bute may have elite skills, but he isn't an elite fighter. His resume makes it a tough sell. Its one thing to beat the c-level guys that he has fought, beating the top fighters is what makes a fighter elite. Having a few loud fans on a message broad doesn't.
