Which Champions didn’t miss out on any major contenders?

Ali and Louis. Tyson and Hagler until they lost their titles. SRR (ww), Monzon and Spinks?

 

Hagler cleaned out the Middleweight division.

If he didn't beat a certain guy, he likely beat the guy who beat that guy.

Examples:

He never fought Dwight Davison, Frank Fletcher and Curtis Parker.

But,

he beat Sypion, who beat Fletcher and Parker.

he beat Hamsho, who beat Parker

he beat Sibson, who beat Davison.

 

A case can be made for SRL at WW, even though it was relatively brief.

 

McCallum told Hagler he ducked him when Marvin spoked to him at a hall of fame induction, also Graham stepped aside to make way for the Leonard fight when he was the no.1 contender, Graham used to fight the same way Ray did when he fought Hagler ironically.

 

I disagree even though he fought the best while he was around Curry came along just after so can be counted as amoung the same era that`s the one that got away but what a career, Starling came along around that time also, that would have been a good fight also.

 

Lennox Lewis even though he never got to fight Bowe.

 

Mike McCallum needs to shut up before he puts fans off him. McCallum was still a jnr middle when Hagler retired, taking 10 rounds to take out the same Milton McCrory that Donald Curry had flattened in two. Which bodes badly for his chances against the similarly built but much better in every facet of the game fighter that was Tommy Hearns. Whom Hagler had flattened. In three.

Hagler didn't duck him; McCallum just wasn't a middleweight or really that relevant when Hagler was still active up to 1987. At middleweight, Mike lost easily to Kalambay, barely edged past Graham due to a point deduction. His career at the weight hardly suggests Hagler needed to have run for the hills.

McCallum was the same age as SRL and two years older than Hearns. If he had won a title before his late 20s he could have got himself in the mix for fights with the Fab Four. But he didn't and as a result he missed the boat and the big paydays. But, for me, that was more to do with him prevaricating and not stepping up sooner than their ducking him as he endlessly spouts. Pity he wasn't so vocal when they were all actually fighting.

 

McCallum became relevant in `87 when he kayoed Curry I think he wanted to move up and fight Hagler that year and McCallum could have stopped Hearns at middle even though he punched harder to the body at middle than the head because Hearn`s was slightly chinny, his legs were too thin.

 

Marciano easily dominated the **** out of his era. He either beat them directly or beat the guy who just beat them and made them a nonpoint until decades later when children struggle to understand atmosphere in time.

Let's give a nod to Wlad as well. He may not of forced an issue with anyone ever, but he did end up whoopin' a whole generation.

 

Hi mark. Agree that Mike would probably have stopped Tommy at middle. By 87, as evidenced in the Roldan fight and then against Barkley, Tommy had become vulnerable and would have been foolish to fight McCallum. Marvin had retired in 87 so McCallum came too late to that party.

Which is my point, really. McCallum was at Montreal in 76 with Leonard. He didn't turn pro though until 81. Leonard and Hearns had fought and beaten Benitez and Cuevas to win titles before Mike had even left the relatively cosy fold of the amateurs. By the time he had made a name for himself as a pro, the other members of the fab four had all been fighting top class opposition for at least 7 or 8 years. Why the hell should they have given him a big payday and a chance as they were starting to slow down? He should have been there at the start instead of holding back. And for McCallum to then go on and on about how they avoided him is ridiculous.

He should have turned pro when SRL did and tried to follow a similar trajectory. That he held back and let them 'carry on ahead without him' is not the fault of Hagler or Leonard or Hearns. It's his own. As we say here in good old Blighty, 'he who dares, wins. He who hesitates ..... don't.'

 

I would say Ali and Hagler are pretty good shouts at division cleaning as you can get. There is always someone who may slip through the net that we can argue about, such as Roscoe Toles, Lem Franklin and Elmer Ray would be far better challengers than some of Louis' victims. Also Nino Valdes and Bob Baker should have got a crack at Marciano's crown. But again, splitting hairs. But I do think Ali and Hagler's was pretty sound.

 

Sonny Liston

 

neither Curry nor Starling was ready for a title shot when Leonard retired with the retina issue in early '82

 

I know but I feel Ray still missed them because they would have been part of his era if he didn`t get a detached retina.