The current Middleweight division is the worst division in history

No, seriously. Has there even been a division that is more of a wasteland than this ? Nobody fights each other, and the supposed top fighters of the division have done so little that the only justifications to their rankings is almost purely based on hype and expectations.

The current divisional number 1 according to the Ring Magazine and the TRBR is Janibek Alimkhanuly. What has he done to warrant such a spot ? Well, he beat the then #7 rated Rob Brant and the corpse of Hassan in 2021, who was last ranked back in 2018 ( as high as #10 !), and who hadn't fought a live body for 2 years by that point. He also made a few ''world'' title defences against, hear this, non rated domestic level fighters who were fresh off British and European title fights. He hasn't fought a ranked opponent since 2021.

Carlos Adames , the divisional #2 by both the Ring and TRBR, is not much better. He has a win over Derevyacneko, which is a good win, but literally nothing else. Not to mention that it's a controversial one at that. He lost to Texeira (who was only a fringe contender) back at 154, and beat a blown up Julian Williams who had had 6 fights in 6 years prior to that, and who hadn't won against a quality fighter since 2019. No other top 10 rated fighters beaten aside from Derevyachenko.

Hamzah Sheeraz, the #3 according to the Ring and #4 according to TRBR, literally has beaten no ranked fighters. He only has one win over the foreboding boogeyman known as Liam Williams, which happened this year. Last time he was a ranked fighter was back in 2021 at #10, and the highest he ever got was at #8 back in 2020. The manner in which he beat him was impressive, but good God.

Erislandy Lara, rated #3 (TRBR) and 4 (Ring) was good, we know that. Not quite Hall of Fame worthy, but he was a good title holder with a respectable resume. Wins over Angulo, Trout, Martirosyan are solid, and his competitive affairs with Canelo, Castano and Hurd also prove his quality, especially considering his age against the latter 2. But let's be honest. The guy hasn't done jack since, aside from getting a Mickey Mouse belt at Middleweight. He hasn't beaten nobody of worth at the poundage since he moved up, no ranked fighters to his name. Only real reason he is still rated is due to sentimentality.

Chris Eubank jr, rated #5 by both platforms. Has a win over the already adressed Liam Williams. He is 1-1 against the currently #6 (TRBR) and #7 (Ring) Liam Smith, a guy who, you guessed it, was a career 154 who only moved up to 160 to fight Eubank aside from a few tenures at the weight against nobodies. The singular win against Eubank is the only win over a rated fighter Smith has. And it's more of a case of Eubank being medicore than Smith being some world beater.

Meiirim Nursultatov, rated 6th by the Ring and 7 by the TRBR, has beaten no fighters that were rated at any point in their life. Kyrona Davis, rated 9th by both, only has a win over Elijah Garcia, who rated at #7 the previous year and is now unranked. Same with the #8 rated Etinosa Oliha, only has a win over the previous #8 MW, Felix Cash, also currently unranked. The #10 rated Tyler Denny is only ranked because he was beating Felix Cash prior to a headbutt merely 5 rounds in. Austin Williams and Anauel Ngamissengue, both ranked by the TRBR, have also beaten no fighters that were ever ranked in their life.

So, the top 12 fighters of the division have a total of 9 wins against men that were top 10 rated by the time of the fight. Only 2 of the 12 have fought each other. 5 of those 12 have beaten no rated fighter at 160, and 2 of them are in the top 5. I'd call this a cesspool, but a cesspool needs to have some substance to be dirty, while this division is drier than an Arab's fart.

 

Was good a while back, but now pretty much everyone noteworthy has left. Ennis is carrying it hard.

 

The 1940's were pretty damn excellent. You had Charley Burley, Holman Williams, Ken Overlin, Jake LaMotta, Jack Chase, Rocky Graziano, Tony Zale, Marcel Cerdan, Fred Apostoli, Bert Lytell, Billy Soose, Cocoa Kid, Tiger Wade, green versions of Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore, and even Sugar Ray Robinson moving up to fight at the weight for a few fights. The only ones here that aren't champions or Hall of Famers were some of the best contenders any division has ever seen. It was an insanely stacked era.

And I'm not even mentioning the underrated contenders of the era, like Jose Basora, Georgie Abrams, Steve Belloise and Robert Villemain, or some aging greats like Teddy Yarosz and Caferino Garcia.

 

A stagnant division is a bad division, no matter how much you want to pretty it up. Out of the top 5 guys in the division, only one has more than 1 win over rated contenders at 160. Two of them have none. The top 2 have one, each, and they were in 2021. That's not just stagnant, the division might as well be dead if the top 2 guys haven't fought actual contenders for 3 years. That's some Wilder ****, as heretical as it might sound. Only 3 fighters of the Ring's top 10 are under 30, with one of them being 29, and 3 of them are 35 or older. With the pace they're going, the 30 something year olds are going to waste their primes fighting domestic level fighters for most of their careers.

There's no universe where this is fine.