Middleweight Division Rankings

Top 10 Middleweight Contenders

1. Miguel Cotto – The win against Sergio Martinez will go down as perhaps the pinnacle of his Hall of Fame career. After a year on the shelf, he followed that up with a strong showing against Daniel Geale. The fight against Canelo Alvarez finally materialized, but when it was announced at a catchweight, like his fight with Geale was, we had enough, and were forced to remove him as our champion.
2. Andy Lee – What a 2014 it was for Andy Lee! Was looking like he was on the brink of retirement in June, losing badly to John Jackson, and then boom, a brutal one-punch KO gets him the win. It landed him a shot against Matt Korobov for a vacant title strap, which he was losing, and then boom, a picture-perfect counter right hook gets him the win. While there were rumors of Lee defending his strap against Billy Joe Saunders in Dublin, instead he faced Peter Quillin. He escaped with a draw and his belt, so he’ll still likely get that UK showdown against Saunders after much delay.
3. Peter Quillin – Quillin is loaded with talent and athleticism, but let’s say a “failure to launch” has stalled his climb, turning down big money and hoping for bigger fights while simply sitting on the shelf. Didn’t look great against Gabriel Rosado — and could have been headed towards a loss if that fight didn’t get stopped, and the judges didn’t have such ridiculous scores. Knocked Lee down twice, but got himself sent to the canvas too, which helped end that fight with a fairly just draw. Fights Daniel Jacobs next.
4. Canelo Alvarez -Canelo is moving up to the middleweight division. Although he’s technically only moving up 1 pound, to meet Cotto at a catchweight fight. We haven’t yet seen Canelo’s form against fighters at 160, so for the time being, we’ll slot him in at the middle of the division.
5. Daniel Jacobs– The once highly touted prospect has not only rebounded from his stunning loss to Dmitry Pirog, he’s also rebounded from a much tougher struggle, his battle with cancer. He’s strung together a series of wins and picked up a vacant, more or less worthless, title strap. Well, I should say it would be worthless, if not for the fact that it signifies his journey towards becoming the first ever cancer survivor to win a major boxing title. Faces Peter Quillin next.
6. David Lemieux -All of the former heavily hyped only to crash and burn middleweight prospects are returning to the forefront, and none more so than David Lemieux. Lost two straight, including a stoppage to Marco Antonio Rubio, bu t then reeled off 9 straight wins, including over Gabriel Rosado in his American debut, and then Hassan N’Dam. He was just up against way too much in GGG, and was out-classed and over-powered.
7. Billy Joe Saunders – Saunders vowed to retire if he lost to Chris Eubank Jr, and now he won’t have to. Earned a decision against his much-hated domestic rival. Oh, by the way, the records of his last four opponents when he fought them: a combined 71-0. In line for a title shot against Andy Lee, which he’ll finally get after several postponements.
8. Hassan N’Dam – Lost the two biggest fights of his career, against Quillin and Lemieux, being sent down a collective 10 times in those fights. Down, but not out. Has showed he will clearly give anybody a difficult outing, even if it’s a spirited, losing effort.
9. Chris Eubank Jr: The loss to Saunders was close, and Eubank rebounded with a nice win over Dmitry Chudinov. Still tough to see where he stacks up on the international scene, but he has plenty of talent and skill.
10. Daniel Geale: It’s been a tough stretch for Geale, losing three of his last five fights, including bad stoppages against Golovkin and Cotto, the two guys at the very top of the division. Remains to be seen how much more he has left, but certainly competitive with the most of the division’s other contenders.

Other Names: Dmitry Chudinov, Matt Korobov, Arif Magomedov, Ievgen Khytrov, Jorge Sebastian Heiland, Curtis Stevens, Sam Soliman, Gabriel Rosado, Marco Antonio Rubio, Sergio Mora, Dmitry Pirog, Tureano Johnson, Caleb Truax, Fernando Guerrero

*Jermain Taylor has been removed from our rankings pending his legal circumstances.