May, 1993. Middleweight

[Bard of Boxrec]

G-man had stopped Julian Jackson in 5, for the WBC title while Jones took care of Hopkins for the IBF. Reggie Johnson also defended his WBA strap in that month against a bum.

How much clamour was there for unification at this time? Was there a sense Jones and G-man needed to build their profile a little more before it could be a big money fight?

Did either of their teams try and get Johnson in the ring as the seemingly easier unification fight for more bargaining chips down the line?

If anyone remembers the 160 scene at this time I would be interested to hear. Thanks

[Tuan_Jim]

None of them were big news and there was no great clamour for them to fight each other in 1993. Bowe, Lewis, Foreman and Tyson dominated the boxing media. The middles were acknowledged as good, but very much specialist interest and overshadowed by the large crop of crazed and eccentric heavyweights.

McClellan was in the King camp. He acknowledged post-fight that he had trouble making weight for Jackson and was already considering a jump to super-middle. Meanwhile Terry Norris, King's own light-middle king, was issuing him a challenge.

Jones wouldn't deal with King. King had approached him in 1992 offering a Julian Jackson title fight but Jones said he couldn't fathom what King would actually pay him.

For Jones-Hopkins, Hopkins was higher ranked but Jones the betting favourite. The fight was dull and received very little coverage, almost disappearing altogether under Riddick Bowe's gigantic shadow. Jones remained in high regard while also being considered something of a mystery as Hopkins asked no questions of him.

Reggie Johnson while well respected garnered virtually no media coverage whatsoever.

Time revealed how good they all were but as with so many potentially great fights in the 1990s, wrinkly grey haired old men worked their hardest to ensure they couldn't happen.

The unbiased, independent, consensus-based Budweiser-Boxing Illustrated's top 10 rankings of this time were as follows. Be ready to wipe your mouth because it is a fairly salivating lineup:

Champ: vacant

1. Roy Jones (IBF)
2. Gerald McClellan (WBC)
3. Reggie Johnson (WBA)
4. Julian Jackson
5. Bernard Hopkins
6. Lamar Parks
7. Sumbu Kalambay
8. Jorge Castro
9. Thomas Tate
10. Steve Collins

[Bard of Boxrec]

Jesus. It's embarrassing to compare that lineup to the festering pile of crap middleweight is today, aside from GGG, who would probably only have beaten half that list. (and I know you would argue less)

[Tuan_Jim]

I'm not sure who I would pick GGG over in that list. Tate? He swallowed everything Jackson threw. Is GGG really a harder hitter than the Hawk? Collins? Maybe. Collins would ask some serious questions of GGG, as he did McCallum and Johnson. Is GGG really on that level? How could anyone be sure?

And yet I've seen GGG heralded as "the most dominant middleweight champ in years", despite not being a champ proper and fighting nobodies. Reminder again that these 'title reigns' are all relative. Does he dominate in 1993?

Does he even get noticed?

[dr_devious]

I think your looking back with rose tinted spectacle. Its obvious that GGG is a tremendous fighter and he can only beat whats put in front of him. I think he'd start even money with McClellan, Hopkins and Toney and beat everybody else on the list

[Tuan_Jim]

I think your looking back with rose tinted spectacle. Its obvious that GGG is a tremendous fighter and he can only beat whats put in front of him. I think he'd start even money with McClellan, Hopkins and Toney and beat everybody else on the list

If I'm looking back with rose tinted spectacles, through what magical goggles are you studying GGG? "He can only beat what's put in front of him" is the sort of trite, meaningless cliche that always gets rolled out when defending the indefensible record.

We can gauge the best of the 1993 crop because they were mixing it up with world class opponents. We cannot gauge GGG in the same way because still he hasn't fought anybody - and yet you have him at even money against G-man, B-hop and Lights Out. Absurd and totally unjustifiable.

[dr_devious]

Time will tell but from what I and many other people have seen GGG belongs in the highest echelons of the middleweight division

[palooka]

How's Parks doing?

[Datsue]

Jesus. It's embarrassing to compare that lineup to the festering pile of crap middleweight is today, aside from GGG, who would probably only have beaten half that list. (and I know you would argue less)

GGG would--by my estimation--do Castro & Parks & Collins & probably do Tate, too (Jackson was the superior one-shot hitter but he did not find Tate as often as I believe Golovkin would. A mass surfeit of power doesn't help if you're not landing right).

I simply haven't seen enough of him against equivalent opposition for me to be able to judge how he'd perform against the rest.

The division was bloody stacked, though. Middle's one of those division's that's gone all to shite.

Why is this? Is it 'cos weight-changing is so easy these days (dehydrate more/lift some weights & drink some, cough, "protein shakes")? Middle's still got half a stone either side of it, though, so it's not a three-pound type division where going to McDonalds puts you in the next weight class. Why is the middle division so fvcked & yet super-bantam/light-welter say are so stacked?

To answer my own question, perhaps 'cos the recent "gravitate towards the star attraction to get a payday" (in contrast to "gravitate towards a division" ethos it supplanted) wossname is giving way to a "gravitate towards a division where you might actually get a title without getting hit back" sort of idea. Boxing's weird, man.

[Counter-puncher]

Jones wouldn't deal with King. King had approached him in 1992 offering a Julian Jackson title fight but Jones said he couldn't fathom what King would actually pay him.

nice.

[orbtastic]

It's funny looking back in those Ring end of year Almanacs, they sum up the belt holders and every year for Hopkins it says "needs to unify".

[Bard of Boxrec]

It's funny looking back in those Ring end of year Almanacs, they sum up the belt holders and every year for Hopkins it says "needs to unify".

Yeah, I like Bernard and rate him about as highly as most others but his middleweight 'reign' was less than inspiring at times, with folks like Carl the Squirrel Daniels, Morrade Hakkar, William Bo James and a washed-up Simon Brown making up the numbers.

I always thought Calzaghe's WBO tenure at 168 was comparable if not better, but while Joe's run was criticised heavily Bernard seemed to get off scott free with his. Hopkins had a few nice wins like Keith Holmes, Echols and Johnson (and a bloated Trinidad), but these are no better than Reid, Kessler and Brewer in my book.