Middleweight
For the mixed martial arts division of the same name, see Middleweight (MMA)Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in
boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the
bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in
1867. Chandler won, becoming known as the American middleweight champion.
The first middleweight fight with gloves
may have been between George Fulljames and
Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey (no relation to the more famous
heavyweight of the
same name). Dempsey knocked out Fulljames on
July 30,
1884.
In the modern era, middleweight means that the fighter's official weight does not exceed 160 pounds (73 kg). (In practice, however, since weigh-ins take place usually 24 hours before the actual fight, many fighters show up at the actual ringside weighing more.)
The current middleweight champion,
Jermain Taylor, won a controversial split decision victory in July 2005, upsetting the defending champion,
Bernard Hopkins, who had held the title since 1995. Taylor solidified his claim to the middleweight title by again defeating Hopkins in a December 2005 rematch, this time by unanimous decision.
Some notable middleweights have been:
*
Harry Greb, arguably the greatest of all the middleweights, and like Robinson, among the all-time greatest pound-for-pound
*
Stanley Ketchel*
Charley Burley, who along with
Archie Moore and
Loyd Marshall was most notable among the Black Murderer's Row, Burley was renowned for his defensive skill
*
Jake "Raging Bull" LaMotta*
"Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, who unified the title and defended it 12 times
*
Carlos Monzon, who defended the title 14 times
*
Bob Fitzsimmons, who was the first fighter - there have only been a handful since - to hold titles in three of the original eight divisions, this was his "natural" weight class
*
Tony Zale*
Mike McCallum*
Mickey Walker*
Gene Fullmer*
Dick Tiger*
Emile Griffith*
Sugar Ray Robinson*
Bernard Hopkins *
Rocky Graziano*
1904 Charles Mayer,
USA*
1908 John Douglas,
Great Britain*
1920 Harry Mallin, Great Britain
*
1924 Harry Mallin, Great Britain
*
1928 Piero Toscani,
Italy*
1932 Carmen Barth, USA
*
1936 Jean Despeaux,
France*
1948 Laszlo Papp,
Hungary*
1952 Floyd Patterson, USA
*
1956 Gennady Schatkov,
Soviet Union*
1960 Edward Crook, USA
*
1964 Valeri Popenchenko, Soviet Union
*
1968 Christopher Finnegan, Great Britain
*
1972 Vyacheslav Lemeschev, Soviet Union
*
1976 Michael Spinks, USA
*
1980 Jose Gomez,
Cuba*
1984 Joon-Sup Shin,
Republic of Korea*
1988 Henry Maske,
East Germany*
1992 Ariel Hernandez, Cuba
*
1996 Ariel Hernandez, Cuba
*
2000 Jorge Gutierrez, Cuba
*
2004 Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov,
Russia
