10. Bernard Hopkins (55-8-2 32 KO)
The man who went by the alias ‘The Executioner’ while in his tenure as middleweight champion, was a formidable champion with excellent defensive prowess and counter punching skills the bread and butter of his work. His tenure as champion in the division, remains to this day the longest in middleweight boxing history with Hopkins making 20 defences of the IBF title. While Hopkins doesn’t quite boast the opposition that those much higher on this list do, he mowed through a series of notable opponents including multi-weight champions Oscar De La Hoya and Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad. Furthermore, the one-sided humbling in his prime against Roy Jones Jr does take away some of the gloss on a stellar middleweight career, regardless of the fact Jones was such an awesome specimen in his prime.
https://youtu.be/7D_Iqg8jauI?t=16m59s
9. Freddie Steele (123-5-11 60 KO)
‘The Tacoma Assassin’ Freddie Steele was a ferocious competitor who held the NBA World Middleweight Title from 1936 through to 1938. Steele was a boxer who boasted a solid set of fundamental skills in particular to his skillset was his phenomenal footwork and was trained by the legendary trainer of champions Ray Arcel. ‘The Tacoma Assassin’ also possessed respectable punching power but not concussive knockout power. Steele overcame luminaries in his era who include Ceferino Garcia, Vince Dundee, Fred Apostoli, Gorilla Jones, Gus Lesnevich and Ken Overlin to name a few. Steele was inducted into the international boxing hall of fame in 1999.
8. Jake LaMotta (83-19-4 30 KO)
The immortal ‘Bronx Bull’ was until very recently, the oldest living champion as he embodied all the stubbornness and toughness he exhibited inside the ring, right until he heard the very last bell at the age of 95.
Lamotta arguably holds the feat of the greatest single win in boxing history after he was the only man to beat the immortal ‘Sugar Ray’ Robinson at the peak of his powers. His other standout feats include violently beating France’s Laurent Dauthuille into submission when he claimed the world middleweight title in the RING magazine’s fight of the year for 1950 as well as inflicting a rare defeat on the career of the immortal Marcel Cerdan.
Also, Jake is commonly associated with having one of the most durable chins in ring history, which allowed him to be so successful as a pressure fighter, well equipped at fighting in close quarters, he also is very underrated defensively despite the fact he was tremendously slick and good at rolling with punches to minimise their effect.
7. Marcel Cerdan (113-4 66 KO)
He was known as ‘Le Bombardier Marocain’ translation ‘The Moroccan Bomber’ and he was, he was a French Pied-Noir world champion. He is furthermore frequently hailed as the greatest fighter France have ever produced.
Cerdan dispatched of memorable fighters such as Harold Green, Dick Turpin and Cyril Delannoit to name a few, but the standout victory on Cerdan’s record was the day he claimed the world title after emphatically dominating ‘The Man of Steel’ Tony Zale, Cerdan proceeded to brutally kayo him in the 10th round of The RING magazine’s fight of the year for 1948. Cerdan is extremely underrated. He is your rare technical offensive and defensive power puncher with an excellent chin. The technique of Cerdan’s hook was spectacular and arguably one of the finest in the history of the middleweight division.
https://youtu.be/DH6SlkpFAOM?t=25m53s
6. Bob Fitzsimmons (61-8-4 57 KO)
Bob Fitzsimmons is commonly credited by many historians as the single greatest fighter Britain ever produced. He made his ring debut in 1885 and fought professionally for a career which spanned 19 years until 1914 and he dominated that era of boxing. Fitzsimmons made groundbreaking history as the first man to claim three world championships. Fitzsimmons claimed the middleweight title with a brutal destruction of Nonpareil Jack Dempsey where he was decked over 10 times and Fitzsimmons practically had to plead with the champion to quit and when he resisted, Bob knocked him cold and carried him back to his corner in a gesture of compassion. Bob is remembered as one of the hardest punchers to ever grace the squared circle and is one of the few fighters in history that carried his knockout power as he climbed the boxing landscape and made forays into multiple divisions and is credited with the # 8 spot on the RING magazine’s all-time list of punchers.
5. Charley Burley (83-12-2 50 KO)
Arguably the finest pugilist to never win a world title and through no fault of his own. He is recognised as a masterful boxer with proficient skills on the backfoot and mind-boggling anticipation and ring generalship. He boasts stellar wins over champions such as Billy Soose, Archie Moore and Fritzie Zivic. Burley was refused a title shot by many of the popular champions of the day as he became a victim of the infamous colour line rule which saw promising black fighters denied opportunities to uphold an image in a time rife with racial politics. Among the fighters who are perceived to have ducked Burley are Billy Conn, Tony Zale, Marcel Cerdan and even the man considered the greatest of all time pound-for-pound in ‘Sugar Ray’ Robinson. The legendary hall of fame trainer, Eddie Futch who trained countless legends such as Joe Frazier, Riddick Bowe, Alexis Arguello, Mike McCallum and Michael Spinks to name a few; said of Burley “he was the greatest all-around fighter he ever saw”. High praise indeed. Burley was inducted into the international boxing hall of fame in 1992.
4. Carlos Monzón (87-3-9 59 KO)
This Argentinian great was the complete package inside the squared circle, his greatest gift was his exceptional work rate as he constantly demonstrated a single minded focus to relentlessly chop his opponents down like a buzzsaw. Furthermore, ‘Escopeta’ seemed to resemble the complete package in the ring as he had knockout power, tremendous boxing skills in particular a ramrod jab, a granite chin and also had his fair share of speed and zip and in his step too.
Monzon held the undisputed world middleweight crown for a 7 year period during a golden era for boxing during the 1970’s. Between 1970 -1977, Monzon cleaned out the division and mowed down every legitimate contender in his era including Tony Licata, ‘Bad’ Bennie Briscoe, Emile Griffith, Jose Napoles, Rodrigo Valdez and Nino Benvenuiti and proceeded to break the middleweight record no. of defences in his time as he made 14 back-to-back defences; a record that would stand for a very long time.
3. Marvelous Marvin Hagler (62-3-2 52 KO)
Destroy and destruction was constantly thrown around as his mantra, he always backed it up too. ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler ruled the middleweight division with an iron fist from 1980-1987 racking up 12 defences of his undisputed middleweight crown, several of those defences included memorable gruelling, hard fought battles against the championship quality of Vito Antuerfermo, Roberto Duran, most famously with Thomas Hearns and John Mugabi to name a few.
If you were a fight fan in the 1980’s and you wanted to go and see a real fight, your money wouldn’t have been better spent than going to see a Marvin Hagler fight. He seemed like an animal whose goal was to inflict pain right from the opening bell. Hagler also possessed one of the finest skill sets in middleweight history too, possessing an ability to fight with equal effectiveness in both the southpaw and orthodox stance, while also being able to box effectively on the outside and have the capabilities to outfight his man in a battle in close quarters. It seemed like no matter what his victims did, Hagler would adjust, feel you out and chip away at your resolve. On top of this Hagler just like LaMotta, also has a claim to the title of the best ever chin in boxing history after seemingly not visiting the canvas legitimately in his entire amateur and professional career.
2. Sugar Ray Robinson (173-19-6 108 KO)
Undeniably, at least in my opinion the greatest fist fighter pound-for-pound who ever walked this earth. While he didn’t achieve quite the same feats with the same swagger as he did in the welterweight division, Sugar Ray Robinson still ranks as an all time great middleweight boxing immortal.
After moving up from his natural weight class, just like Bob Fitzsimmons, Ray carried his knockout power up with him and cleaned out an entire golden era of middleweights predominantly by kayo with champions such as Gene Fullmer, Randy Turpin, Rocky Graziano and Carl ‘Bobo’ Olson all crumbled under the force of Ray’s unique power. The famous columnist, Bill Gallo once said of Robinson ‘It was as if God said let me create the perfect fighter’.
Among Ray’s unique gifts were his phenomenal footwork, hand speed and ring generalship while also possessing unreal knockout power in either hand. Robinson is forever immortalised in the history books primarily because not many others upset the odds more times than Robinson too. Obituaries were constantly written for Robinson during his endeavors at the weight of 160 lbs and he was most famous for his doggedness at middleweight. A doggedness which made for the only 5-time world middleweight champion.
https://youtu.be/9xMLt9Vakrg?t=18m28s
1. Harry Greb (260-19-19 48 KO)
‘The Pittsburgh Windmill’ Harry Greb takes the # 1 spot as the greatest middleweight of all time in my book, his record is simply mind boggling and we will never see the likes of such again. Nobody in boxing history defeated more hall of fame fighters than Harry Greb and no one gave as little credence to weight as Greb with records inferring he scaled the weights and stopped heavyweights such as J.D Turner. Greb conquered 15 international boxing hall of fame inductees and several of them multiple times and those opponents include: Mickey Walker, Maxie Rosenbloom, Gene Tunney, Johnny Wilson, Kid Norfolk, Tommy Loughran to name a few.
It was a different time and Greb recorded feats that simply put will never be seen again, including going 45-0 at the peak of his career in the single calendar year of 1919.
Greb was known for his perpetual motion style of fighting he always sought to be aggressive and apply pressure to break every opponent he faced down with a barrage of relentless punches. The former heayvweight divisional kingpin, the great Jack Dempsey who used to spar with Greb once said ‘hitting him is one of life’s most difficult jobs, because he’s never set for a second, never comes at you the same way twice, never does anything in ring warfare which can be called orthodox.’ Greb was inducted into the boxing hall of fame in 1990.
On a final note I would just like to add some honourable mentions to my list: Tiger Flowers, James Toney, Stanley Ketchel, Emile Griffith, Ezzard Charles, Joey Giardello, Tony Zale, Roy Jones Jr, Mickey Walker, Thomas Hearns and Rodrigo Valdez. All deserve their spot in the pantheon of middleweight greatness but I based my list on the total body of work while at the weight of 160 lbs and these legends just missed the cut. I hope nobody gets upset with the list!