Ranking the 10 Best Boxers in the Middleweight Division
The middleweight division is one of the most top-heavy in the sport of boxing.
There are two men who can lay legitimate claim to the top spot and a ton of talented veterans and contenders jockeying for position right below them.
The division isn’t as loaded as welterweight, but it has tremendous potential, and here we rank the top 10 fighters.
It’s a subjective topic, and you can feel free to disagree, debate and discuss.
These are the top 10 best fighters in the middleweight division as we head toward the close of 2014.
10. Jermain Taylor
1 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Jermain Taylor found his way into a title opportunity that nothing in the world says he earned earlier in October. He took advantage of an injured Sam Soliman, dropping him four times to lift a middleweight title for the first time since 2007.
Why He’s Here: It's literally only because he has a belt. Taylor’s defeat of Soliman was his first fight at 160 pounds since 2007, and it was more a function of the Aussie’s injury and crudeness than anything Taylor did particularly well.
Why He’s Not Higher: Nobody is rooting against Taylor, but his best fighting days passed us by long ago. He has a belt and a name, so he’ll likely find his way into another significant fight or two, but if you think he can beat a top-tier middleweight, you’re out of your mind. He probably won't even be matched with one.
9. Marco Antonio Rubio
2 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Marco Antonio Rubio has only fought once this year, an interim-title victory over Domenico Spada in April, but he has a big opportunity Saturday night. The 34-year-old Mexican will either become Gennady Golovkin’s latest victim or he’ll shock the world.
Why He’s Here: Rubio gets a lot of flak, but he is a solid fighter and a tricky out for anyone but the very best in his division. He has good punching power and fights in a gritty, gutsy manner. His only recent losses have come against fighters who were considered at the top of the division at the time.
Why He’s Not Higher: Rubio has failed in the two biggest challenges of his career, dropping championship fights in lopsided fashion to Kelly Pavlik and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He seems to operate just below the upper tier of middleweight division’s best.
8. Martin Murray
3 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Martin Murray is quickly becoming one of those "what if" type fighters. He's fought twice in 2014, defeating a pair of so-so opponents, and he will defend his WBC Silver Middleweight Championship against Spada late in October. A win there would keep him on the path for a future world title opportunity.
Why He’s Here: Murray has shown that he's a solid fighter capable of competing with the division's very best fighters. He gave Sergio Martinez all he could handle, knocking down the then-champion and nearly spoiling his homecoming party in Argentina in 2013. Prior to that, he had been robbed in a championship challenge of Felix Sturm in Germany in 2011. He can fight, and he's just looking for another opportunity.
Why He’s Not Higher: Murray needs to find his way back into a significant fight. The WBC belt he holds is usually a ticket to a world-title shot, but with the WBC handing out 160-pound belts like they're water, who knows?
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7. Hassan N'Dam
4 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Hassan N’Dam captured a meaningless shutout decision over long-past-his-best Fulgencio Zuniga in April, but he also scored a significant win over Curtis Stevens early in October. By dominating Stevens—a murderous puncher—N’Dam became the mandatory challenger for the IBF title now held by Taylor.
Why He’s Here: N’Dam is a tremendously underrated boxer. He has good speed and movement, and he’s able to dart in and out to avoid punches. The Cameroon-born fighter held a world championship in 2012 and is in good position to secure another opportunity, and in a fight he can definitely win.
Why He’s Not Higher: N’Dam’s only loss was an odd fight. He was dropped six times by Peter Quillin in a contest that was much closer than you’d expect when seeing that number of knockdowns. If not for them, N’Dam would probably have won the fight, boxing circles around Kid Chocolate for large segments of the fight. Still, he needs to show that he can beat someone on that next level.
6. Daniel Jacobs
5 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Daniel Jacobs is having a banner 2014 campaign, becoming the first cancer survivor to capture a world championship by stopping Jarrod Fletcher in August at the Barclays Center in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York.
Why He’s Here: Jacobs has won six consecutive fights since returning to the ring from a bout with cancer that threatened both his career and his life. Just being back in the ring is an accomplishment, and his punching power makes him a significant factor in the division going forward.
Why He’s Not Higher: Lost in all the justifiable hoopla and celebration over his achievement is the fact that Jacobs holds a paper title. Golovkin is the legitimate WBA champion, and sanctioning-body politics won’t change that. In his comeback, thus far, he hasn’t faced anyone you’d consider dangerous or near the level of the top dogs at 160, and we'll truly gauge him when he does.
5. Daniel Geale
6 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Daniel Geale stopped countryman Garth Wood in February and parlayed that into a challenge of Golovkin in July. He was more competitive than a third-round knockout would indicate, but he still became the 17th consecutive man to see his night end early against the Kazakh destroyer.
Why He’s Here: The middleweight division is very top-heavy, and there isn’t a huge amount to separate between the contenders. Despite the knockout loss, Geale remains a former world champion and someone who can probably beat anyone—on the right night—in the division not named GGG. And he deserves credit for being one of the few men in the division with the guts to accept that challenge. It's not like they were lined up around the block to fight Golovkin.
Why He’s Not Higher: Geale is coming off a tough loss in which he was drilled by a blind-side shot. He’s the best fighter among the second-tier middleweights, but he could find coming across another opportunity difficult. He's high risk and somewhat low reward.
4. Sergio Martinez
7 of 10
2014 Year in Review: This hasn’t been a kind year for the Argentine, who until June was the undisputed kingpin of his boxing neighborhood. He was decimated by Miguel Cotto, losing his title and leaving many lingering doubts about his health and ability to continue his fighting career.
Why He’s Here: For all the talk of his injury post-fight, many of the same pundits who dismissed Cotto’s chances out of hand were now left to discredit his win by pointing to Martinez’s bum knee. Cotto fought a perfect fight, and Martinez has no shame losing to a Hall of Fame fighter, even if his best days are behind him.
Why He’s Not Higher: We just don’t know how much, if anything, he has left. Martinez has expressed a willingness to fight on, and he’s earned the benefit of the doubt. Even if he’s a diminished fighter, not many guys can do what Cotto did to him.
3. Peter Quillin
8 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Peter Quillin has had a lackluster year. He’s only fought once—a lopsided but unimpressive decision win over unheralded Lukas Konecny in April—and vacated his WBO Middleweight Championship to pursue other opportunities.
Why He’s Here: Quillin is undefeated and still has a very bright future with big fights available. But the time is now. He’s 31 years old—not old but not young either— and needs to get moving. His decision to drop the WBO strap was because of a non-sexy mandatory against Matt Korobov, so we can hope that’s a prelude to something bigger and better.
Why He’s Not Higher: Even without a belt, Quillin remains one of the best the middleweight division has to offer. Sure, he’s got a few limitations, but he’s powerful and exciting when he really presses the action. There’s no shame being ranked behind the top two on this list, but he needs to get moving.
2. Miguel Cotto
9 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Cotto made history in June, blitzing Martinez, knocking him down three times in the opening round to set the tone and become the first Puerto Rican fighter to win a world title in four weight divisions. The achievement was historic and the icing on the cake of an already Hall of Fame career.
Why He’s Here: Cotto will be ranked No. 1 on most middleweight rankings list, and that comes out of respect for who he is as a fighter, what he’s accomplished and his victory over Martinez. And you can’t really argue the point on those merits. But we don’t yet know whether his middleweight run was a one-time thing or if he plans to continue at 160 pounds. He's the champion, but he's not the best fighter in the division.
Why He’s Not Higher: Cotto just isn’t a natural middleweight. He’s a great, great fighter, a Hall of Famer and deserves every accolade and bit of respect he’s earned. But, by toppling Martinez, he opened the gates for a new middleweight kingpin to emerge.
1. Gennady Golovkin
10 of 10
2014 Year in Review: Golovkin has fought twice in 2014, blasting out both Osumanu Adama and Geale in impressive fashion. The latter was particularly important, as it represented GGG’s first victory over a fighter in the top five of the division and came on one of boxing’s biggest stages—the big room at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Why He’s Here: The future is now for Golovkin. He’s knocked out his last 17 opponents and could make Rubio No. 18 on Saturday night in Carson, California. He’s the best middleweight in the world. The chances are good that he can find his way into a truly big fight sometime next year, with both Cotto and the recently returned to HBO Canelo Alvarez distinct possibilities.
Why He’s Not Higher: He can’t be any higher, at least in the middleweight division. Golovkin’s task right now is to consolidate his position at 160 pounds, secure high-profile fights and continue rising in the pound-for-pound rankings.
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