Ten greatest super middleweights of all time

Good list. For the most part, it seems like we all have close to the same guys in the top ten but just in a different order from each other.

 

The issue i have with Calzaghe is he fought alot of fighters coming off losses i'll give you some examples.

Robin Reid = Coming off an abysmal performance losing to a 40+ Thulani Malinga.

Richie Woodhall = Coming off losing and being floored 3 times by feather fisted Markus Beyer.

Charles Brewer = Coming off losing to Antwun Echols.

Byron Mtichell = Coming off a loss to Sven Ottke.

Kabary Salem = Coming off a loss to Mario Veit.

That's quite alot of title opponents coming off losses.

And how fighters like Rick Thornberry, Branko Sobot, Peter Manfredo, Evans Ashira, Mger Mkrtchyan, got title shots is baffling quite honestly.

Jeff Lacy, Mikkel Kessler, are his stand out wins at the weight i'll give him alot of credit for Kessler. But Lacy was very over hyped he went life and death with Omar Sheika and lost pretty much every round to Syd Vanderpool before coming from behind. Those fights showed Lacy was not an elite fighter IMO.

 

I watch him and he is amazing.

BTW, much the same could be said of Ward.

 

Thanks! I never actually realised that - certainly looks like a pattern.

My guess is, since They could not get the unification fights - fighting guys who just lost their title was probably the second best option. Maybe it was indeed - since the real issue with Joe's record is the second list You gave. All the Branco Sobot's, Will McIntyre's etc. Basically club fighters that Joe was stacking up his title defences against.

 

He never really impressed me at Supermiddle as such.

 

Ward's over hyped and protected too, and both needed robberies to protect their mythical undefeated records which is the main reason anyone talks about either of them so regularly.

I have no dog in this fight and I'm definitely not going to get into that bizarre Ward/Calzaghe pissing contest that's so popular around here. That's brain rot, lowest common denominator kind of ****.

 

I can respect that.

 

Agreed! For some odd reason, both Ward and Calzaghe seem to have a lot of haters which is odd since both faced and beat the top guys in their divisions. I really don't get the dislike for either man.

 

I'm not so sure tbh. Calzaghe's opposition was, for the most part, pretty laughable. But while Toney was an excellent fighter, he did still come into the ring in awful condition and barely even seemed to try. And besides, Calzaghe's stay at 168 was much longer, which imo gives him a better argument to be ranked higher thanks to accumulative depth of 20 title defences, though both fought pretty middling opposition at 168. Quite honestly, I'm not much of a fan of either, I think the hype and mysticism surrounding them has shrouded a lot of the carefully managed parts of their careers and the mediocrity thereof.

 

That's the prime Roy Jones Jr. effect. Most of his opponent barely even seemed to try.

 

I've enjoyed this thread but one thing that is abundantly clear is 168 is historically one of the weakest if not the weakest from an atg perspective. Most folks top five is hall of fame guys but the back end of the top ten mostly isn't or is loaded with borderline hall of famers like Froch. I know Froch recently got in and Kessler is on the ballot but not a lot of truly great fighters at 168.

Cruiserweight might be the only division that has less great fighters outside of the really small weightclasses.

 

1. Calzaghe due to wins over the following: Eubank, Kesler and RJJ (I will add Hopkins)
2. RJJ
3. definitely not Ward (LHW Golota)

 

Exactly, these people be hating on Ward SMH

 

I don't want to poke the bear because I did have an argument recently regarding Ward and I don't want to have another argument.

But the hate for Ward is because most felt Kovalev got robbed vs him in their 1st fight, and the 2nd fight had a controversial ending with the low blows. You also had Ward being very dirty vs Kessler so I can understand why some dislike Ward for his rough house tactics and a few controversial fights.

As for Calzaghe I think he was too happy to defend the lowly regarded WBO belt for so long fighting against no hopers he should've seeked out better fights sooner. I know for a fact he pulled out of a fight against Glen Johnson numerous times which didn't set well with me. And I weren't too pleased Calzaghe ended his career beating a totally shot RJJ who he said years before he wouldn't fight.