The 1990s were such a great decade for middleweights..

Early 1990's. BHop was the only one that lasted at MW into the late 90's.

The 90's was a great decade for a lot of divisions. HW in particular

 

yeah i would have said that the HWs were more impressive in the 90's but the middleweights up to SMWs were awesome as you say. Just wish we could have seen the likes of Collins taking on RJJ and Eubank versus Toney.

 

A lot of good names there, the problem is though they didn't really mix it up with each other to make it a great division.

 

I agree, the HWs were great also.

 

Looking at it:

At 154; the division was ok. It had some solid champions, but rarely a decent fight. Vazquez was solid... Norris was fun but tended to avoid his peers and Winky Wright was only getting his dues in Europe.

At 160 we had Jones, Benn, Eubank and Toney use the division as a platform for the 168lb division, and Hopkins built solid rep, but it was not until 2001 and the victory over Tito, that he redeemed himself fully from the Jones defeat.

168 never had so good in the 90s, but for whatever reason RJJ did not want to get involved in the British and Irish party and that hurt Jones' legacy as well as the division.

 

i wouldn't say greatest of all time ...but definitly maybe the most talented

 

what can you guys say about 00 decade, are they the worst in boxing history?

 

worst? .. maybe not .. late 70s early 80s ..post monzon ..pre prime time hagler ..was pretty rough

 

I really wished that Norris had made his move up and had faced Thomas Tate or Bernard Hopkins. Julian Jackson faced Mike McCallum and Terry Norris faced Julian Jackson and Terry came back against John Mugabi, but the fight that could have happened was Terry Norris-Mike McCallum at 154, or at least, Mike McCallum-Michael Nunn at 160 but Sumbu Kalambay and, then, James Toney came in between. Mike McCallum could have faced Nigel Benn but he beat Watson in 11 and Benn beat Barkley in the States... At Super-Middle, Benn, Collins and Eubank should have faced Nunn, Toney or RJJ. Basically, the great fighters were all there but the best fights didn't happen between them and at the right time.

 

How would the likes of Collins, Benn and Eubank faired against RJJ or Toney? How good was Mclennan? Enough to elevate Benn at the time? All of this was a little before i started watching boxing

 

Collins actually called out for Jones and for P4P status after beating Eubank the first time. Of course he was ecstatic ( won the WBO MW and SMW titles) and he never had that opportunity fighting so many times in the States ( including a WBA middleweight title fight and a split decision loss to Reggie Johnson who would lose to Toney for the IBF title and to Jones for the unification of the LHWT title). Toney openly dismissed a chance to fight either Benn or Eubank, even before they faced each other in the rematch, before Toney lost to Jones and before Benn knocked out McLelland... Nunn was present in Manchester for the Benn-Eubank rematch as the WBA titlist but would never come to fight them ( lost to Steve Little)... McLelland was a true hard-hitter from the Kronk Gym the way he won the WBO and then, the WBC MW title against another all time great puncher from the U.S. Virgin Islands in Julian Jackson and knocked out "The Hawk" again in one in the rematch ( Manny Steward no longer there in his corner)... He moved up and was all balls against Benn for the WBC SMW title in 95. Benn came back from where it's impossible to come back from and earned any single bit of respect that anyone could not have had for him at the time, Don, Dr. Ferdie Pacheco ( extremelly biased towards the G Man in the Showtime telecast) and many others... The rest is history... G Man doesn't remember anything about the Benn fight, just about the J Jackson fight.