Making Sense of Boxing's Muddled Middleweight Division

Is there any sport in the world more difficult to follow than professional boxing? No, I’m not talking about the subtle nuances of the fights or the minutiae of everyday fight life. I’m not even talking about all the different managerial and promotional factions—the promoters, televisions networks and whatever Al Haymon is doing with his Premier Boxing Champions series—that make various fights virtually impossible and put many folks in the fight game inside a courtroom more than ringside.

I’m just talking about who is who in the world of boxing. Take, for instance, the middleweights. Saturday night’s Showtime Championship Boxing show features cancer survivor Daniel Jacobs squaring off against former titleholder Peter Quillin. The tagline for the promotion distributed via press release says: “Winner takes the belt and Brooklyn.”

Yes, both Jacobs and Quillin hail from Brooklyn. That part makes sense. But what belt is on the line on Saturday? Where do these fighters sit right now in boxing's muddled middleweight landscape?

Let's sort through this together. 

Who’s the Champ?

JOHN GURZINSKI/Getty Images

Behold the middleweight champ. Kind of.

Most people consider Canelo Alvarez the middleweight champion of the world. After defeating Miguel Cotto last month, Alvarez became the lineal middleweight champion, according to the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and Ring Magazine. He also picked up the WBC title belt.

Here’s the complicated part: The 25-year-old Alvarez isn’t really a middleweight yet. Sure, the former junior middleweight titleholder has technically competed at middleweight in his last four fights, but none of the bouts has had contract weights over 155 pounds (five pounds under the middleweight limit) and none of the fighters he’s faced was a true 160-pounder.

Boxing’s middleweight champion is a fighter who isn’t really a middleweight, doesn’t consider himself one and doesn’t really plan on fighting at 160 pounds anytime soon. Oh, and the guy Alvarez seized the middleweight throne from was basically the same.

So the middleweight champion is Canelo. Kind of. 

What About Golovkin?

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Golovkin holds two titles at 160.

Alvarez might technically be the middleweight champion, but most people actually consider Gennady Golovkin the best middleweight in the world. He is a unified champion. He holds the WBA and IBF title belts. He's undefeated, and he's knocked out 21 straight opponents. 

How good is he? Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden hailed Golovkin as maybe the scariest man on the planet. That's right. Snowden called him the scariest man on the planet. Not boxer. Not fighter.

Man. 

And unlike Alvarez, the 33-year-old Golovkin is a true middleweight. All 34 of his professional prizefights have been at middleweight or above, and he looks the type to move up to 168 pounds sooner than move down to 155 pounds to meet Team Alvarez’s demanded catchweight.

So Golovkin isn't the lineal champ, but he's probably the top dog at 160.

Isn’t There Another Titleholder?

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Lee is the WBO titleholder.

Alvarez and Golovkin aren’t the only two middleweight titleholders. Andy Lee, a 31-year-old southpaw from Ireland, is the WBO middleweight champion. He defends his claim to the world title against Billy Joe Saunders on December 19 in Manchester. Showtime will broadcast the bout. 

Since suffering a Round 7 knockout to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in 2012 during his first attempt at winning a world championship, Lee has remained undefeated in seven straight fights. His two come-from-behind knockout wins over John Jackson and Matt Korobov erased all doubts about his status as a world-class fighter, and the latter of the two bouts earned him the WBO belt.

Earlier this year, Lee fought to a draw with Peter Quillin, who had interestingly enough vacated the WBO belt before Lee and Korobov fought for it in 2014. It was high-level action. Quillin knocked Lee to the canvas in Round 1 and again in Round 3. Lee returned the favor in Round 7.

So while Alvarez is the lineal champion and Golovkin is probably the best middleweight, Lee is the other guy at 160 pounds who can legitimately call himself a world champion. 

Who Are the Top Contenders?

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Cotto-Canelo 2 or nah?

While Alvarez (lineal and WBC), Golovkin (WBA and IBF) and Lee (WBO) are the division’s titleholders, a handful of interesting contenders are fighting in and around the division. The most notable name, a 35-year-old Cotto, probably has seen his time as a middleweight come to a close. Barring a rematch with Alvarez, which seems unlikely at this point, there’s no one else in the division who would make sense for Cotto to fight. He’s naturally smaller than every other fighter in the division, and at this point in his career he’s likely only interested in making big fights against name-brand opponents.

Besides Alvarez and Golovkin, middleweight is devoid of name-brand fighters.

Still, former titleholder David Lemieux is a solid hitter with a fun style. He’d make decent enough competition for anyone at 160. Undefeated British contender Saunders, who faces Lee later this month, and American middleweight Dominic Wade hope they can make some noise in the division, too.

And if any junior welterweights are to join the mix soon, the most likely candidates are titleholders Erislandy Lara and Jermall Charlo and former titlist Demetrius Andrade. Those three have the skill and body types that could easily translate to the heavier weight. 

How Does Quillin-Jacobs Fit into the Picture?

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Quillin is undefeated. Will he remain so after Saturday?

The winner of Jacobs-Quillin will become one of the best middleweights to not currently claim any of the middleweight titles. Along with those mentioned on the previous slide, Jacobs and Quillin are world-level fighters. Both men are considered among the top-rated fighters in the division, per the TBRB and Ring Magazine. Both men are in their prime and appear to have the talent and skill required to climb to the top of the middleweight rankings.

The winner will most assuredly be considered the best middleweight not to hold a world title.

To add confusion where none is needed, Jacobs is the WBA’s regular middleweight champion, which is a fancy way of saying he’s paid a sanctioning fee to not actually be the WBA’s middleweight champion but has a belt that says so anyway. Sigh.

Golovkin, of course, is the WBA’s super champion at middleweight. That’s a fancy way of saying he’s the WBA champ. Regardless, the winner of Saturday’s bout will deserve a crack at any of the middleweight world titleholders, something that would be a good start toward cleaning up this muddled middleweight mess.

But don’t count on it happening, of course. After all, boxing is a needlessly complicated sport, a cluttered jumble that makes it hard for the average Joe to keep up with who’s who in any of the divisions. It's not likely to change anytime soon.