Is middleweight on the verge becoming boxing #1 division?

[Chepppaaa]

golovkin
cotto
canelo (maybe)
lara (maybe)
murata (olympic gold)
ogogo (olympic bronce)
quillon
murray
taylor
trout
sturm
lee
korobov
chudinov
lemieaux
saunders
eubank jr


canelo is going to move up to middleweight sooner or later. canelo is a big 154 and at 154 there is not much $$$ to make, where at middleweight with cotto and golovkin closely becoming a star there will be cash to be made. lara same like canelo will in my eyes also go up. lara - cotto, lara - canelo II, golovkin - lara, simply, because of $ and better match ups.
trout already moved up. and the pool of talent is undeniable.

[armageto]

By the time Canelo goes to a full blown MW, Cotto will be out the door. Aside G3, the division has no other big star. A lot of good solid fighters, but not many guys who people are interested in seeing, aside them fighting G3. So my answer is no....

[Chepppaaa]

by the time canelo is a full blown middleweight, floyd, pac and marquez will be gone. so who is left at welterweight? feather fisted hated bradley, unknown thurman, disliked kahn....????

what i mean is, there arent many divisions who will be as big as middleweight, because a lot of division will lose stars. stars are rare, very rare. welterweight will have none after the departure of the big 3. and the talent pool isnt as big as middleweight, were with olympic world class like ogogo or murata and potential quality guys coming up to face ggg like lara.

also, i am not talking only about ppv star and so called star power, i am talking about talent, about skill, about simply the best boxers. good example is the light heavyweight division. compared to welterweight in terms of star power and ppv, the lh is nothing against welterweight. but in terms of great match ups and great boxers and great future fights, than LH is better than welterweight, also, because those lh boxers are prime, weres welterweights top dogs are close to retiremant or out of prime.

prime adonis
prime kovalev
prime berbetiev
prime egor
prime fonfara

thats sound more entertaining to me than...

past prime boring floyd
past prime pacquiao
old marquez
feather fisted bradley
feather fisted kahn

[davie]

golovkin - superstar in the making, needs big fights
cotto - Likely to move back down for Canelo or a sniff at FMJ rematch
canelo (maybe) - Likely to hang around a bit longer in hope of FMJ rematch
lara (maybe) - Is he likely to move up. I don't think he's that great
murata (olympic gold) - Another Japanese fighter being moved along quickly, looking forward to seeing some of this guy
ogogo (olympic bronce) - Don't think he's that great. Of the UK olympians, AJ is top, Ogogo and Campbell will get found out somewhere between european and world level IMO. Stalker was crap.
quillon - Duck
murray - Solid competitor, came up just short in last 2 title challenges, likely to come up way short in next one. How will he recover from what GGG dishes out?
taylor - Done
trout - Been found out by the top guys at 154
sturm - Past it, not going to get any better
lee - Interesting that he keeps digging himself out with that right hand, but a limited fighter.
korobov - KO'd by a limited fighter. Is he a world beater? I don't see it
saunders - European level fighter IMO. Will come up short when he does get his shot at world title IMO
eubank jr - Beaten by afforementioned European level fighter. We'll find out more about Jr & Chudinov soon
chudinov - perenial interim WBA champ (not even good enough to be considered regular champ and strangely didn't fight for the vacant ordinary title when Jacobs/fletcher did)
lemieaux - Beatable over the distance or inside it, but he can bang. Interesting




Ultimately, there's some good fighters in there, some with potential to get better but some well over the hill.
Some of them still LMW and may remain so as long as FMJ is still on the horizon.
Some are good fighter, but not great, certainly not world class.
There is no way this division overtakes the welter weight division in the next 3 years.

[davie]

I'd also say, the attraction of joining the middleweight division isn't as big.

If you are a light welter or light middle the attraction of a fight against the big 2 welters is huge. Yes you'll lose but your reputation wont be damaged, you wont get fucked up, because neither floyd or pacquiao are big punchers at welter and you get a bloody good pay day

How much do you get paid for the privilege of stepping in with arguably the scariest puncher p4p right now? IMO not enough to go chasing a GGG fight, especially when he isn't even in your weight class. How many guys are bouncing back from the GGG fight as good as they went in. It can have a damaging effect.

[armageto]

by the time canelo is a full blown middleweight, floyd, pac and marquez will be gone. so who is left at welterweight? feather fisted hated bradley, unknown thurman, disliked kahn....????

what i mean is, there arent many divisions who will be as big as middleweight, because a lot of division will lose stars. stars are rare, very rare. welterweight will have none after the departure of the big 3. and the talent pool isnt as big as middleweight, were with olympic world class like ogogo or murata and potential quality guys coming up to face ggg like lara.

also, i am not talking only about ppv star and so called star power, i am talking about talent, about skill, about simply the best boxers. good example is the light heavyweight division. compared to welterweight in terms of star power and ppv, the lh is nothing against welterweight. but in terms of great match ups and great boxers and great future fights, than LH is better than welterweight, also, because those lh boxers are prime, weres welterweights top dogs are close to retiremant or out of prime.

prime adonis
prime kovalev
prime berbetiev
prime egor
prime fonfara

thats sound more entertaining to me than...

past prime boring floyd
past prime pacquiao
old marquez
feather fisted bradley
feather fisted kahn

I fully understand your point, but the MW list he posted doesn't have a ton of talent. Sturn, Murray, Lee, Korobov, etc.. these guys are in every division. G3 will probably have to go up to find better fights. That would leave you with Canelo and a surplus of C/B- level guys. Will MW be a dreadul division, no, but it won't be the best either.

I never mentioned the welter division, but potential fights with Khan, Porter, Thurman, Garcia, Broner, and a few other guys that will probably have to move up from 140 soon, looks more exciting than anything the MW division will have to offer in 2 years.

[davie]

also, i am not talking only about ppv star and so called star power, i am talking about talent, about skill, about simply the best boxers. good example is the light heavyweight division. compared to welterweight in terms of star power and ppv, the lh is nothing against welterweight. but in terms of great match ups and great boxers and great future fights, than LH is better than welterweight, also, because those lh boxers are prime, weres welterweights top dogs are close to retiremant or out of prime.

prime adonis
prime kovalev
prime berbetiev
prime egor
prime fonfara

thats sound more entertaining to me than...

past prime boring floyd
past prime pacquiao
old marquez
feather fisted bradley
feather fisted kahn

Can't agree with this either, Beterbiev, fonfara, egor?

Better than the potential matchups at welter. Lets look at how the top 10 could maybe line up
Mayweather vs Pac
Khan vs Brook
Thurman vs Porter
Maidana vs Bradley
JMM vs Guerreo

Of course theres the promotional issues in making these, just as there are at light heavy. But you can't name me one other division that could provide these 5 fights (or any number of other combinations). You can't name me a top 10 in any other weight division so packed with talent

[Freedom2013]

Middleweight is interesting, but light heavyweight is becoming the best division:

Artur Beterbiev
Oleksandr Gvozdyk
Egor Mekhontsev
Vyacheslav Shabranskyy
Dmitry Bivol
Marcus Browne
Joe Ward
Eleider Alvarez
Umar Salamov
Radivoje Kaladzjic
Jean Pascal
Sergey Kovalev
Isaac Chilemba
Adonis Stevenson
Bernard Hopkins
Medzhid Bektemirov
Sergey Ekimov
Vasiliy Lepikhin
Ahmed ElBiali
Enrico Koelling
Abel Gevor
Erik Skoglund
Oscar Ahlin
Sullivan Barrera
Yunier Dorticos
Umberto Savigne
Yunieski Gonzalez
Yamaguchi Falcao
Eleider Alvarez
Seanie Monaghan
Abdelhafid Benchabla
Adilbek Niyazymbetov
Andrezj Fonfara
Nadjib Mohammedi
Maxim Vlasov
Jurgen Braehmer
Thomas Oosthuizen
Edwin Rodriguez

[Freedom2013]

golovkin
cotto
canelo (maybe)
lara (maybe)
murata (olympic gold)
ogogo (olympic bronce)
quillon
murray
taylor
trout
sturm
lee
korobov
chudinov
lemieaux
saunders
eubank jr

And don't forget Ievgen "The Ukrainian Lion" Khytrov (who was robbed in his Olympic match against Ogogo), Arif Magomedov (13-0, age 22) and Sergey Derevyanchenko.

[Chepppaaa]

Middleweight is interesting, but light heavyweight is becoming the best division:

Artur Beterbiev
Oleksandr Gvozdyk
Egor Mekhontsev
Vyacheslav Shabranskyy
Dmitry Bivol
Marcus Browne
Joe Ward
Eleider Alvarez
Umar Salamov
Radivoje Kaladzjic
Jean Pascal
Sergey Kovalev
Isaac Chilemba
Adonis Stevenson
Bernard Hopkins
Medzhid Bektemirov
Sergey Ekimov
Vasiliy Lepikhin
Ahmed ElBiali
Enrico Koelling
Abel Gevor
Erik Skoglund
Oscar Ahlin
Sullivan Barrera
Yunier Dorticos
Umberto Savigne
Yunieski Gonzalez
Yamaguchi Falcao
Eleider Alvarez
Seanie Monaghan
Abdelhafid Benchabla
Adilbek Niyazymbetov
Andrezj Fonfara
Nadjib Mohammedi
Maxim Vlasov
Jurgen Braehmer
Thomas Oosthuizen
Edwin Rodriguez

great post.so many guys you listed i didnt know, but after watching youtube or boxrec and watching there skill set, you totaly right. i hope they will get a lot of buzz and media attention, because at LH is bomb is about to explode, so many quality boxers, no division seems to come close.

[Chepppaaa]

also, i am not talking only about ppv star and so called star power, i am talking about talent, about skill, about simply the best boxers. good example is the light heavyweight division. compared to welterweight in terms of star power and ppv, the lh is nothing against welterweight. but in terms of great match ups and great boxers and great future fights, than LH is better than welterweight, also, because those lh boxers are prime, weres welterweights top dogs are close to retiremant or out of prime.

prime adonis
prime kovalev
prime berbetiev
prime egor
prime fonfara

thats sound more entertaining to me than...

past prime boring floyd
past prime pacquiao
old marquez
feather fisted bradley
feather fisted kahn

Can't agree with this either, Beterbiev, fonfara, egor?

Better than the potential matchups at welter. Lets look at how the top 10 could maybe line up
Mayweather vs Pac
Khan vs Brook
Thurman vs Porter
Maidana vs Bradley
JMM vs Guerreo

Of course theres the promotional issues in making these, just as there are at light heavy. But you can't name me one other division that could provide these 5 fights (or any number of other combinations). You can't name me a top 10 in any other weight division so packed with talent

adonis - kovalev is better than may - pac at that point
porter, kahn, guerrero - overrated
egor is an olympic gold world class boxer, no a bronze b level overhyped guy like kahn
egor - berbetiev could be one of the greatest lh fights ever, dream match up.
jmm is out, way too old.
brook is very good. him vs thurman would be big

[man]

nope.

[ArmaanCFC]

the amount of P4P potential matchups that can be made in Welterweight makes it the best division

[Chepppaaa]

in your dreams

[ReggieDiggs]

Idk about #1, but MW is looking sexier once Saul officially gets there & the Saul vs GGG cinco de mayo 2016 hype begins (you know they won't throw Saul in with GGG right off, gotta notch 2 or 3 wins & get a belt first).

[ikorolev]

WTF does it matter ? Just enjoy individual fights. Rating divisions is ridiculous.

[davie]

egor is an olympic gold world class boxer, no a bronze b level overhyped guy like kahn
egor - berbetiev could be one of the greatest lh fights ever, dream match up.

Really? don't put too much into an olympic gold mate, two words for you....Audley Harrison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=harYJLUA128
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAy9-RVdiX4
I've gone and had a look at the only 2 pro fights I could find of Egor Mekhontsev and I see nothing to suggest he can be as successful as Khan, let alone Floyd or Pacquiao.
Followed his opponent around, will struggle against guys who can move better or back him up. He's not the quickest, methodical and predictable, I don't see him reaching world class to be honest and if he does he'll get found out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tp-GDNmMjA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww_0qWWHQWs
This guy on the other hand. Impressive. Perhaps getting over excited about the win over an already shopworn looking Cloud, but this guy looks the business and to be honest I think he'd eat Egor Mekhontsev alive right now or in 3 years time. To class it as some potential superfight is madness.
Perhaps 10 fights from now, if he fulfills his potential put this guy in with Kovalev and you have a superfight, but still nothing on a par with 2 guys, who even well past their prime are still arguably no 1 + 2 p4p in the world.

[hurricanemitch14]

nope ggg will be gone.......cotto aint staying......lara aint doin ntn middle

[ReggieDiggs]

Idk about #1, but MW is looking sexier once Saul officially gets there & the Saul vs GGG cinco de mayo 2016 hype begins (you know they won't throw Saul in with GGG right off, gotta notch 2 or 3 wins & get a belt first).

Gennady Golovkin will be 34 years old and ‘Canelo’ Alvarez will only be 25 years old on Cinco de Mayo weekend of 2016.

An awful lot can happen in a 17 month timeframe… and it wouldn’t surprise me if Golden Boy chose to postpone such this match-up until 2017, in order to take advantage the age gap.

We know one thing for certain, nothing is straight-forward in the sport of boxing, politics and long-term strategies always affects the timing of highly-anticipated "super" fights.

Damn you went glass half empty on a mfer didnt you lol. Sure anything can happen. Sh!t GGG & Saul could both be "bums" in stupid boxing fans opinions by then, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I think both guys are still growing in their popularity & May 2016 could be the peak time for that fight $$$ wise & maybe even competitive wise, cuz I kinda see GGG as a big favorite today. Let GGG get a lil more aged &/or Saul a chance to improve & it might be more even by then.