Fighters that successfully swept their division

[I Feel Fine]

I was thinking of Witherspoon, but he lost to Smith so you can't really blame Tyson for that.

Maybe, but consider that in between beating Smith and losing to Douglas, Tyson fought:
-Larry Holmes, who was retired
-Tony Tubbs, who had lost to Witherspoon just a few fights earlier
-Frank Bruno, who had also lost to Witherspoon

All the while, Witherspoon was still active and winning.

He may not have had a title, but certainly he was a better and worthier opponent than some of the other fighters Tyson was giving shots to.

Jacobs' argument for fighting Holmes was interesting. Basically, since most people, including myself, thought that Holmes had won the Spinks rematch, the idea of fighting Holmes was that he was arguably the linear champion, rather than Spinks. I'm sure the real reason why they fought Holmes was that he was simply a more recognizable name and so they could get more money out of it, and since he was old it was an easy fight.

I didn't say that Tyson shouldn't have fought Witherspoon, but I don't know that he was obliged to. I think the main question is with '88 Tyson and Calzaghe is this; does beating someone who has a win over someone else allow you to say that you've cleaned out a division, or do you have to beat both guys?

[I Feel Fine]

Are there any current fighters in the process of doing this?
I'm not saying these fighters did clean out but they took out a chunk of the competition:

Klitschko
Haye
Calzaghe
Pavlik
Cotto

Klitschko has more to do. Pavlik has to at least beat Abraham and Sturm to say that, and that might not be enough either. I suppose now that Mayweather is retired Cotto only needs a few more, but for all we know Mayweather could come back at any time. Pacquiao didn't fight Guzman at 130.

[Diamond WEAPON]

Are there any current fighters in the process of doing this?
I'm not saying these fighters did clean out but they took out a chunk of the competition:

Klitschko
Haye
Calzaghe
Pavlik
Cotto

Klitschko has more to do. Pavlik has to at least beat Abraham and Sturm to say that, and that might not be enough either. I suppose now that Mayweather is retired Cotto only needs a few more, but for all we know Mayweather could come back at any time. Pacquiao didn't fight Guzman at 130.

Pavlik doesn't need Sturm, Sturm is a bum. I hope Sebastion Sylvester dethrones that chicken. And yes, Pacquiao never fought Guzman at 130, nor did he fight him at 122.

[I Feel Fine]

Are there any current fighters in the process of doing this?
I'm not saying these fighters did clean out but they took out a chunk of the competition:

Klitschko
Haye
Calzaghe
Pavlik
Cotto

Klitschko has more to do. Pavlik has to at least beat Abraham and Sturm to say that, and that might not be enough either. I suppose now that Mayweather is retired Cotto only needs a few more, but for all we know Mayweather could come back at any time. Pacquiao didn't fight Guzman at 130.

Pavlik doesn't need Sturm, Sturm is a bum. I hope Sebastion Sylvester dethrones that chicken. And yes, Pacquiao never fought Guzman at 130, nor did he fight him at 122.

I'm not crazy about Sturm either. But he has a belt. If Sturm ducked Pavlik, then I wouldn't fault Pavlik for that. If Sylvester did beat him, maybe Pavlik could fight him instead, though I doubt that fight would happen. It seems Pavlik is more interested in Calzaghe than he is in staying at Middleweight. I hope he at least fights Abraham first, if Abraham wins the Miranda rematch.

[Ambling Alp]

The whole concept of "sweeping out" or "cleaning out" the division is pretty vague.
There is always going to be someone left that you could say the champion should have fought. A champion could fight 3 serious challengers a year for three years. By the time the three years is up, new contenders will have emerged.
If that is what is meant by sweeping out the division, then it really never happens.

However, if beating enough of the best competition that leaves little question about your superiority is "sweeping out the division", then that occasionally happens.

For example, Tyson didn't fight Witherspoon (or Coetzee, or Dokes or Page for that matter) but he was clearly better than them.
He did beat Berbick,Smith,Tucker,Tubbs, Thomas etc. who are all comparable fighters to the best fighters that Tyson didn't fight.

[Poncey]

Two contentious ones:

Benny Lynch
Nas Hamed (purely from a belt perspective)

[Poncey]

But Joe won all four belts without loss. To me, that's sweeping a division.

[Poncey]

Froch, Inkin and Bute are only recent additions, though, to be fair. Kessler had a little bit more experience (and two titles).

I see your point, as but he won the top 3 (and RING belts) within 18 months. To me, that's a sweep. Maybe I base mine too much on belts instead of credible opponents but I think you can always have a case for saying "What about this guy" and it never ends.

IMO Joe is the best 168 pound fighter ever purely on his accomplishments at that weight. Don't get me wrong, Roy was miles better at 168 but he didn't achieve enough for me.

[I Feel Fine]

The reason I thought it good to name Calzaghe was that I was trying to think of a current example. But if your contention is that he waited for the division to get weak, then pounced, that still counts I would say. Granted, I don't claim to know everything about the Super Middleweight division. I just thought that the winner of Calzaghe-Kessler would have wins over a lot of names in the division, and a win over an opponent who had wins over most of the other names in the division, along with all the belts. So it seemed to me at the time that the winner of that fight could claim to have cleaned out the division. Maybe there are some younger Super Middleweights who I might have looked past, which goes to the point I made earlier, and which alp also mentioned, that its difficult to say you cleaned out a division because there are always young fighters coming up. With Hopkins for example, if someone thought that Hopkins did beat Taylor, there was still Abraham and a few other fighters who had emerged by the time of those fights. It's difficult to get to everyone who is coming into the division.

[dr_devious]

HW - James J Jeffries, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston (late 50s), Ali (early-mid 60s), Tyson (mid-late 80s). I thought about Johnson and Dempsey, but they avoided the top black contenders when they were champ
LH - Bob Foster, Mike Spinks
MW - Carlos Monzon, Marvin Hagler
WW - Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard
LW - Roberto Duran

[I Feel Fine]

Terry... I'm not so much debating this point, I'm simply conjecturing that if someone beats one or two fighters who have beaten a lot of names, that perhaps that can qualify as cleaning out a division. As you say, Kessler beat some of the big names in the division, like Mundine and Beyer. I'm sure that it is fair to say that Calzaghe did little besides sit on his WBO belt for most of his reign, up to the point that he fought Lacy, but he did beat Lacy, and did beat Kessler, and those men beat many of the top fighters in the division; so I wonder if that, along with other wins, could qualify as cleaning out a division.

But, as I said, I may have looked past some of the younger fighters coming up.

Interesting comment on Calzaghe-Reid. I've never seen that fight, and I've heard it said that the decision might have been questionable.

[My2Sense]

Interesting comment on Calzaghe-Reid. I've never seen that fight, and I've heard it said that the decision might have been questionable.

I've only seen it once, but I thought Reid might've beat him too. He finished stronger and he landed most of the bigger/cleaner punches IMO.

[Ezzard]

The whole concept of "sweeping out" or "cleaning out" the division is pretty vague.
There is always going to be someone left that you could say the champion should have fought. A champion could fight 3 serious challengers a year for three years. By the time the three years is up, new contenders will have emerged.
If that is what is meant by sweeping out the division, then it really never happens.

However, if beating enough of the best competition that leaves little question about your superiority is "sweeping out the division", then that occasionally happens.

For example, Tyson didn't fight Witherspoon (or Coetzee, or Dokes or Page for that matter) but he was clearly better than them.
He did beat Berbick,Smith,Tucker,Tubbs, Thomas etc. who are all comparable fighters to the best fighters that Tyson didn't fight.

You're right but I guess people are looking for there to be no names left that are viable. I still think Witherspoon was a live opponent. Tyson would have foguht him though. It was probably more to do with King.

[Poncey]

Terry... I'm not so much debating this point, I'm simply conjecturing that if someone beats one or two fighters who have beaten a lot of names, that perhaps that can qualify as cleaning out a division. As you say, Kessler beat some of the big names in the division, like Mundine and Beyer. I'm sure that it is fair to say that Calzaghe did little besides sit on his WBO belt for most of his reign, up to the point that he fought Lacy, but he did beat Lacy, and did beat Kessler, and those men beat many of the top fighters in the division; so I wonder if that, along with other wins, could qualify as cleaning out a division.

But, as I said, I may have looked past some of the younger fighters coming up.

Interesting comment on Calzaghe-Reid. I've never seen that fight, and I've heard it said that the decision might have been questionable.

I totally agree Joe beat the man that beat the mean, etc, etc so in the most basic of mindsets he was better than the fighters that lost to Kessler. Joe's career prior to 2006 was poor, but in the last 25 months I don't think you can question it (although you can easily question the last performance). In my mind, he's swept the 168 division in those 20 months between March and November simply because of the two opponents he beat, gathering a further 4 belts in the process. He's won everything in that division without loss. To me that's a sweep.

With regard to Reid v Calzaghe; I had it a draw at best, at worst Reid by 2. It was a really poor performance by Joe.

[giacomino]

Monzon did twice. He was the dominant middleweight in the first half of the decade, then he twice beat Valdez when they split the title. By the time of his second fight and retirement, he was about to turn 35. If he had continued fighting into 1978 and 1979, you could have argued that he should have fought Hagler, but unifying the title by beating Valdez in 1976 and 1977 after dominating the division so many years pretty much qualifies for this category, i think

[Poncey]

Haye is a good example, but with a flaw. He almost swept the division but didn't fight Cunningham for the IBF strap. Joe fought and beat the IBF champion. Interesting to see how different people value sweeping a division by either beating all opponents that come along or unifying all belts.

Shame all debates can't be this much fun on BoxRec!

[Jaybird]

I'd say Salvador Sanchez did pretty good with the time he had, ....and here comes the but....but it would have helped if he had fought Pedroza, time just ran out

Jay

[I Feel Fine]

I like fighters with desire, I do not like Calzaghe, and I did not say that I disagreed with your criteria. But it is subjective.

I never implied that Calzaghe beating Kessler equals a win over Beyer or Mundine.

[theone]

In 1943 thru 1944, Bantamweight champion Manuel Ortiz I believe defended his World title 13 times defeating 9 top ten contenders. if this isn't cleaning out the division I don't know what is.

[T.M.K]

Hi gents,

in recent times, the only fighter to truly sweep their division was Ricardo Lopez. He beat anyone with a claim to being the number 1 in his weight, and if he didn't face a particular fighter (Chana Porpaoin) he beat the person who beat them (Rosendo Alvarez). I admit the final 2 names left on his ledger he beat at Light-Fly, but we can forgive him the 3 pounds :)

Roy Jones & Naseem Hamed get honourable mention in my book.

"T.M.K"

[elmersalsa]

Two contentious ones:

Benny Lynch
Nas Hamed (purely from a belt perspective)

You hit right in the nose with Benny Lynch...He is another that is considered a guy that cleaned up his division...What a fighter.

[prettygoldenboy]

to some extent naseem hamed at featherweight as morales and barrera had to come up to featherweight

roy jones at light heavyweight for a perriod of time

[bollox]

It's probably already been posted (re Tyson - Spoon) but........Tim was frozen out of the HW scene by one D King in the later part of the 80's due to a court action he'd brought against King