Last year, Britain's 3 best middleweights all fought for world titles, Matthew Macklin and Martin Murray fought for Felix Sturm's WBA Super version of the title and Darren Barker matched up against Sergio Martinez for the WBC Diamond and The Ring titles. While Darren Barker gave Martinez a good fight, he was outclassed by the Argentine Middleweight king. As for Macklin and Murray, both their outcomes can be debated, with them both putting on fight-winning performances only to see Sturm go home with his belt still around his waist.
So what I'm asking is whether the British middleweights do have the class to be world champions or whether they will forever be lingering in the gap between being to good for domestic and European glory but not quite there in terms of being top class, world level fighters?
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0 recs | 11 comments
The last likely to win a title IMO is Barker — the most likely is Macklin if he gets another favorable matchup. None of them on their best day are going to beat Sergio Martinez, but I’d give Macklin a fighting chance in a rematch against Sturm (obviously) and I think I’d actually pick him to beat Dmitry Pirog who is quickly becoming one of the most annoying fighters in the world (my favorite thing now is he turned down a Golovkin fight to supposedly fight N’Jikam, and then injured himself falling down, so that’s not happening either).
Murray may well have had his best possible night against Sturm in December. I’d pick Sturm or Pirog to beat Barker, who is the most “skilled” of the three but has the worst gas tank and just the least grittiness, IMO.
Scott Christ - February 14, 2012
How would you rate them against JC Chavez Jr? He's your typical brawler so...
Radu - February 15, 2012
I think Murray could show up at 180lbs to fight JCC Jr.
Im_a_fun_haver - February 15, 2012
Macklin’s the best fight for him. Murray would give him a run but probably legitimately lose. I think Chavez would wear Barker out bad and ultimately physically dominate him.
Scott Christ - February 15, 2012
And by “legitimately lose” I mean you could score it 115-113 or 116-112 for Chavez in a competitive fight where the scores are 118-110 type stuff.
Scott Christ - February 15, 2012
In fairness to Pirog, I have no idea how serious either of those offers from Golovkin and N’Jikam were; I pretty much assumed they were more of the usual posturing we’ve seen in that division over the past couple of years. Golovkin’s own manager shot down talk of a Pirog fight immediately after the Simon win and nothing in N’Jikam’s recent history makes me think anything close to a serious proposal either.
I think Macklin would probably be the most likely of the three to win a decision over a beltholder and Barker the least likely just on workrate alone. I do however think I’d slightly favor Barker to come out on top if the three of them ever fought.
bachwards - February 15, 2012
Nothing in Pirog’s recent history makes me think he’s any more serious than Golovkin or N’jikam, though of the three I feel N’jikam is by far the least serious.
Scott Christ - February 15, 2012
I agree, I just think it’s more of the same for all of the parties involved. Quillin probably annoys me the most of all the paralyzed middleweights since he’s actually turned down legitimate offers only to then act like guys were ducking him.
bachwards - February 15, 2012
Yeah. I mean Jesus, how long have we been talking about Golovkin-N’jikam now? Three years? This is the Mayweather-Pacquiao nobody cares about.
Scott Christ - February 16, 2012
It's a shame about Pirog. I thought he was going to be a legit #2 in the division by now.
I think he’s a bit too straightforward for Sergio, but he looked like he’d beat anyone else with a bit more seasoning. Shame he hasn’t decided to take the necessary steps, really.
Olbas - February 18, 2012
What opportunities has he passed up? We know he’s pursued Martinez, Sturm, Geale, Barker. Like bachwards said, no offer from GG, and no interest from his management, at least 2 months ago.
N’Jikam supposedly made an offer to fight him in EQUATORIAL GUINEA. It says a lot about how desperate Pirog is that he even pretended to entertain the idea. Sounds like he’ll sit out his “injury”, then make NJikam a decent offer to come to Russia.
HamzaWanderaWRSCO - February 18, 2012
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