Top 10 Middleweights in Boxing today

The middleweight division is one of boxing's “traditional 8” , the divisions that date back to the sports very early days. Although the division has always been one of the most prestigious through out history it's currently not one of those that would bee deemed a deep division like the Super Middleweight division or the Light Welterweight division. In fact in terms of known quantities it's a relatively poor division, though unknown quantities are arguably the thing that makes the division so interesting. The division has so many solid but less well known fighters complimenting the better known fighters, arguably the most under-rated fighter in the division has been the most well matched man in boxing, whilst the divisions youngest rising star is nothing other than a magnet for the sports fans and more importantly he appears to have potential to cross over into a true boxing sex icon.

Through out this piece you will notice the rankings of the 4 independent sources I prefer to use (ESPN, Ring, Boxrec and Fightnews) as well as that the occasional world ranking body will be referenced for fighters. Explanation for some “absent” fighters will be discussed at the end. Rankings are based on talent, achievement, activity and in some cases potential.

Rankings: Ring-Champion, ESPN #1, Fightnews #1 and Boxrec #1
Record 45-2-2 (24)
Title(s): WBC (Emeritus), former WBO, former WBC Interim (at Light middleweight), former IBO (at Light middleweight)
The man who was generally regarded by both the boxing media and the fans as the 2010 fighter of the year took the mantle and now sits atop the Middleweight division courtesy to victories over Kelly Pavlik (the divisions linear champion) and Paul Williams. It's hard to think of anyone else with 2 wins even near that quality in the last couple of years. Although Martinez has only beaten 1 true Middleweight he beat the divisions king and as such has taken his crown. A skilled southpaw with an unusual style, lots of movement, good work rate, solid hand speed and an ability to take shots alarmingly well Martinez looks like he's finally making a name for himself after a long career. His record is marred by a couple of odd marks, most namely his loss against Paul Williams (which many felt he had won) and the draw with Kermit Cintron (in a fight he should have won twice over).
It's only now, with Sergio just days from turning 36 that he's getting recognition, though the problem could be that he's only going to be a flash in a pan as his age catches up with him. HBO are fully behind him and with his good looks, exciting in ring style and the 2^nd round KO of Paul Williams in their rematch it's easy to see why. The problem of his age will not be something that goes away and personally it's a matter of how much does he really have in the tank as to just how long he'll hold onto that #1 position.

Best wins: Williams (KO2), Pavlik (UD), Roman (KO4), Bunema (TKO8)

Rankings: Ring #8, ESPN #9, Fightnews #3 and Boxrec #4
Record 17-0 (14)
Title(s): WBO
The Americans thought Pirog would be an easy nights work for their rising star Danny Jacobs, though it only took someone to look at his record to know that was never going to be the case. Pirog and “un-Eastern Eastern fighter” does everything a typical European fighter doesn't do, he moves fast, drops his hands, show boats and fights in an aggressive manner. Before facing Jacobs some journalists and fans who had never seen him were describing him as a “typical upright textbook European” which made it rather fun to watch their mouths drop when they actually saw him in action. Things that should have given away that he was a little bit special included the way he had been matched, he had faced solid, durable fighters, he had racked up over 80 rounds in 16 fights before going to America and hadn't been given the easy ride of many modern day fighters.
Although he has failed to stay active since his victory over Jacobs he is meant to be fighting in March in Russia, hopefully he'll be picked up by a US network and not hidden away in the eastern block.

Best wins: Jacobs (TKO5), Mitchell (TKO5), Jantuah (UD), Kodzoev (KO4), Tatevosyan (UD)

Rankings: Ring #1, ESPN #4, Fightnews #2 and Boxrec #2
record 34-2-1 (14)
Title(s): WBA Super, former WBA (twice) former WBO
Best known in American due to his controversial loss to Oscar De La Hoya back in 2004 though an amazing fact is Sturm has been ring ranked for an amazing 384 weeks (more than 7 years). Sadly for the more knowledgeable fans his rankings appear very questionable and is arguably ranked where he is (by me included) due to his longevity. He has been dubbed by some as the worlds most protected fighter and appears to be your typical German stay at home type of guy who gets a title than refuses to travel. The WBA have, so far, been willing to let him do as he pleases and almost allowed him to make easy title defences on a basis that suits him. De La Hoya aside he has “beaten” every man he has faced (avenging a loss to Javier Castillejo and a draw to Randy Griffin), helped in part to helpful judging.
Sturm, it should be noted, has fought outside of Germany 4 times, his loss to De La Hoya (USA) being the most well known with 2 other fights taking place in Austria and one in Croatia. Technically he's a solid fighter but his lack of willingness to prove himself really works against him and no matter how good he is he'll never get any recognition fighting the guys he fights (including Ronald Hearns next).

Rankings: Ring N/A, ESPN N/A, Fightnews #8 and Boxrec #14
Record: 20-0 (17)
Title(s): WBA
It's perhaps unfair to rank a fighter so highly on potential though Golovkin is for many the best fighter you've never seen (and it looks like Dan Rafael of ESPN hasn't seen him from the lack of ranking there). A top level amateur who fought a relative who's who is now slowly carving out a place in the professional ranks, the problem though is that he's not been let off the leash yet. Golovkin is skilled, hard hitting, technically brilliant, has solid movement, good hand speed and picks his punches excellently, though until the level of opponents is stepped up we'll not be too sure about him. He appears as if he has a very bright future and if a good opponent is fought next he may manage to solidify his top 5 ranking, though if his promotional team are going to keep holding him back he'll stay in the relative obscurity he's in with regards to your typical fight fan.
It's worth noting that that German fans are crazy about this guy, the American that have seen him view him as probably the most complete fighter in the division and the British fans should be hoping Matthew Macklin and Darren Baker are kept well away from him.

Best wins: Nunez (KO1), Mamani (KO1), Gardner (UD), Khomitski (TKO5)

Rankings: Ring #3, ESPN #5, Fightwews #7 and Boxrec #6
Record: 34-3-1 (16)
Title(s):IBF
“Hurrikan” is a funny one to gauge, he's lucky to be a world champion, he's been stopped twice (although once was on his debut), needed a controversial draw to hold on to his titles after a fight with Roman Karmazin and needed a controversial split decision win over Giovanni Lorenzo to even win the title. Perhaps a sign of how weak the division is though, he's regarded as a top 10 fighter in the division. Like Sturm it seems Sylvester will be the definition of a stay at home fighter and never leave Germany (in 2006 Sylvester fought outside of Germany for the only time in his career, going to Austria to beat a professional loser). In fact I'd doubt ever seeing him outside of Northern Gemrany (Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) due to the safety he has with the judges, though he really is a title waiting for someone to take it from him. An average chin, average punch power and very little that makes him outstanding.

Best wins: Oral (UD), Lorenzo (SD), Simon (UD), Castillejo (KO12), Asikainen II (KO11)

Rankings: Ring #5, ESPN #6, Fightnews #10 and Boxrec #3
Record 24-1 (15) (Ring state he is 22-1 (13)
Title(s): Former IBO
Possibly Australia's last hope for a world title (unless Leonardo Zappavinga upsets Miguel Vazquez for the IBF Lightweight title), currently the IBF's #1 contender to face Sylvester Geale is skilled, has only got a single, controversial loss on his record (split decision loss to Anthony Mundine) and has scored some solid wins. Geale is talented but he'll have to show more ambition than the likes of Mundine and Danny Green if he wants to show how good he really is. Problem for Geale is he's yet to fight outside of Australia and with Sylvesters reputation for staying at home Geale is likely the one who will need to budge.
A top former amateur who's career highlights include a gold at the 2002 Commonwealth games it's now time to sink or swim for a fighter who should be looking at enforcing his mandatory title shot.

Rankings: Ring #10, ESPN #NA, Fightnews #11 and Boxrec #5
Record 25-0 (17)
Title(s): WBA (interim)
The Frenchman is as frustrating as Golovkin, ranked more on talent and potential than top quality wins. A fight between N'Dam N'Jikam and Golovkin seems to be a fight that is on a collision course, though boxing fans have been saying that for around a year as it is. Like many others on this list he's not been happy to travel too far, fighting all his fights in either France, Morocco or Luxenbourg. Skilled and a former decent amateur he's been fighting relatively mediocre opponents in the division which has held him back. Aged 26 he has more time to waste than most others though he may not want to waste too much of it due to the guy at #8 in this list.

Rankings: Ring N/A, ESPN N/A, Fightnews N/A Boxrec #15
Record 25-0 (24)
Title(s): None
Lemieux is a fighter that has it all, he's got true KO power, great style, exceptional shot selection, a huge following in Canada and the ability to get females interested in the sport. No other fighter (aside from maybe Saul Alvarez) beats Lemieux for potential to be a star. He's 22, a born puncher and a good looking one. He's currently promoted by Groupe Yvon Michel and is seen as one of Canada's growing stars in the sport.
Lemieux is currently ranked in the top 15 by all 4 of the world organising body's and is lined up to face Marco Antonio Rubio in a WBC eliminator, a win there and he's bound to face Sebastian Zbik for the WBC title. KO, power, speed, youth, good looks and boundless talent, their exists no reason as to why Lemieux will not be a world champion one day.

Best wins: Ayala (KO1), Smichet (KO2), Gates (TKO2), Camacho Jr (KO1)

Rankings: Ring #7, ESPN N/A, Fightnews #5 and Boxrec #16
Record 30-0 (10) (Ring say 29-0 (10))
Title(s): WBC
Zbik, like Sturm and Sylvester is yet another German based, stay at home title holder. Controversially handed the WBC title after being interim for over a year but never chasing the true title. Zbik is skilled, but more in the Sven Ottke mould than most others. He's relatively powerless but good handspeed, good technical ability and good movement. Unless he takes a fight outside of Germany (something he hasn't done since 2006) he'll never be anything other than a paper title holder, unless he can tempt either either Sturm, Sylvester or Golovkin to fight him in Germany.
Zbik maybe a paper title holder and unable to score stoppages to save his life (only 3 in his last 10) but he's got powerful friends it seems and he does hold some really good wins, but only against “European” standard type of fighters.

Rankings: Ring N/A, ESPN N/A, Fightnews #15 and Boxrec
Record 41-0-1-1 (30)
Title(s): WBC (Silver)
A controversial choice though I think it's time we slowly started to accept that “junior” isn't that bad. He's not his dad, of course he's not, few people will ever rank up there with JCC Sr, though he's improving under Freddie Roach and could well be a genuinely solid contender further down the line. He has one of (if not the) longest active unbeaten streak in the sport at 43 fights (beating Floyd Mayweather's 41 fights) and although many of them were easy fights he's slowly coming into his own.
Chavez is a long way from being a genuine world title contender though with Top Rank behind him he'll be given a while whilst Bob Arum cashes in on his popularity.

Best wins: Duddy (UD), Cuello (UD), Vanda II (UD), LeHoullier (TKO1)

The division is dominated by German based fighters who hold all “4” titles (despite the fact Martinez is the true champion), a really confusing matter in a division that seems to promise a lot but actually have little going for it at the moment.

Missing out-
Kelly Pavlik is unlikely to ever fight back at 160, almost certainly moving to 168
Paul Williams is also unlikely to ever fight back at 160, almost certainly going to be at 154 or even 147
Matthew Macklin looked useless against Varon

Video sources:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Frumpzilla
http://www.youtube.com/user/LoganVolverin
http://www.youtube.com/user/wwwgolovkinde
http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsOnABC
http://www.youtube.com/user/philbud
http://www.youtube.com/user/marly980
http://www.youtube.com/user/UniversumBoxPromo