10 Greatest Middleweights Of All Time

The middleweight division has always been one of my favourite divisions in boxing even today with the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin and Billy-Joe Saunders. All time, you’ve got some great names and really top fighters and today we’ll be looking at the ten greatest middleweights of all time.

10) Bob Fitzsimmons (61-8-4)

English boxer, Bob Fitzsimmons will forever be the first boxer to become a three division champion. Ruby Rob had found great success at middleweight and also at light heavyweight and heavyweight. He fought the majority of his fights in Sydney, Austria and was even a former Austrian middleweight champion.

9) Marcel Cerdan (110-4)

Only knocked out once in his career, Marcel Cerdan had 110 wins to his name with 65 of them being by knockout. The French boxer had only 4 losses to his name which is great. Cerdan went on to become a world champion and even had a son who never held a world title.

8) Mickey Walker (94-19-4)

Mickey Walker is often considered as one of the greatest middleweights of all time and that’s why he’s on the list. I read some lists and they ranked him higher than 8th and some didn’t even include Walker which I disagree with. Walker transitioned from welterweight to middleweight in his 20’s and focused on winning the middleweight championship which he did end up down by by defeating then champion, Tiger Flowers - the first black middleweight champion who sadly just missed out on being featured on this list. He went on to be champion for five years.

7) Stanley Ketchel (51-4-4)

It’s a shame that Kerchel was assassinated at the age of 24 but that’s what happened to former middleweight champion, Stanley Ketchel. Ketchel’s strategy was different to many as according to the man himself, he used to imagine that his opponent would be insulting his mother and Ketchel would use this anger to win. Turned professional at 16, Ketchel was lineal champion and defended the title several times.

6) Bernard Hopkins (55-8-2)

It’s crazy to think that Bernard Hopkins’ last fight was only three years ago when Hopkins was 51 almost 52. What’s even crazier is the fact how Hopkins was 49 and he was defending his WBA and IBF championship and fighting for the WBO light heavyweight title at 49 against Sergey Kovalev - Canelo’s next opponent. Anyway, we’re not talking about light heavyweights although you can read the all time light heavyweight greats on AllThingsCombat.com. At middleweight, he was a machine. At one point, he was WBA, WBC, IBF middleweight champion. In fact, the IBF title has always been the title he’s been associated with throughout his career. Selling over 3 million PPV’s in his career, Bernard Hopkins will always be an all time great.

5) Jake LaMotta (83-19-4)

Are you familiar with the phrase, “hit and don’t get hit”? LaMotta was more familiar with the phrase “hit and get hit just as hard”. The Bronx Bull and Sugar Ray Robinson had such a historic rivalry and one of the biggest feuds in boxing history despite Sugar Ray winning 5/6 fights the two had. LaMotta has a rock solid chin and one of the best chins in boxing history. In his and Robinson’s sixth fight, Robinson damaged LaMotta with heavy shots but didn’t get knocked down but the referee did stop it.

4) Carlos Monzon (87-3-9)

It was rare for Carlos Monzon to suffer a loss and in his 14 year career, he only suffered 3 losses. Being from Argentina, it was extremely common for Monzon to fight in Argentina and he had his first 13 fights in the country. Monzon concluded his boxing career as both WBA and WBC middleweight champion.

3) Marvelous Marvin Hagler (62-3-2)

Where do I even begin with Marvellous Marvin Hagler? You could put him number one on the list, you could put him number three on the list or just like I did, you can put him number one. To this day, he still holds the highest KO percentage out of all the undisputed middleweight champions in history with a mind blowing, 78%. Hagler was annoyed that announcers didn’t address him as Marvelous Marvin Hagler so as you do, he legally changed his name to Marvelous Marvin Hagler which I’m sure was the logical thing to do in that situation. Hagler was a fantastic boxer and definitely deserves to be on an all time great list.

2) Harry Greb (105-8-2)

Harry Greb was a very elusive boxer and often threw barrage of punches and drowned his opponents with these shots. Greb was ranked the 7th greatest fighter of the past 80 years according to ring magazine which is a fantastic achievement. After losing light heavyweight championship to Gene Tunney, Greb moves down to middleweight and went after then champion, Johnny Wilson. Greb won the fight and even won the rematch.

1) Sugar Ray Robinson (173-19-6)

Before we talk about Robinson’s middleweight career, I think it’s important to talk about his amateur career and it was mighty impressive as he went 85-0. Robinson had a 91 fight unbeaten streak spanning from the years 1943 to 1951. He found success at welterweight, middleweight and even light heavyweight. Robinson was unique for so many reasons but his style definitely stood out. He had so many and perfected every one, he could brawl, he could counterpunch and had knockout power in either hand. Sugar Ray Robinson is not only the greatest middleweight of all time but one of the greatest boxers of all time - period.