It’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga fight week, and you know what that means: It’s time to get creative and find ways to talk about this fight without talking about the fight itself!
This will be unified four-belt titleholder and lineal champion Alvarez’s 12th bout in the super middleweight division (counting his 2017 meeting with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at a catchweight of 164 pounds), and he’s so many levels of skill and accomplishment above Berlanga that comparative analysis between the two of them would largely be a waste of time and energy. At this stage of Canelo’s career, as long as he insists on fighting opponents around this level, comparative analysis between him and the all-time greats is far more compelling.
And since the super middleweight division turned 40 this year — on March 28, 1984, Scotland’s Murray Sutherland claimed the first belt in this new division positioned between middleweight and light heavyweight — it makes that much more sense to look back over these four decades and rank its greatest champions. Where does Canelo land? You’ll have to read on to find out, but this much we can say: Beating Berlanga, whatever the method of victory, will not impact his standing in any way. (Losing to Berlanga would, but … come on, let’s try to stay tethered to reality here.)
So here are the top 10 super middleweights of all-time, as ranked by someone who started covering boxing professionally when the 168-pound titlists were Frankie Liles, Robin Reid, and Charles Brewer. Note that these rankings are based solely on what the fighters did as super middleweights — achievements at middleweight, light heavyweight, or any other division are irrelevant here. And accomplishment is the primary criterion, but ability matters too. In other words, the first question is “What did you do?” but I also ask, “How did you look doing it?”
For each of the fighters, we’re including their full career record; their record in 12-rounders or 15-rounders in the super middleweight division (which is similar to citing their record in title fights, but slightly reduces the influence of alphabet vagaries); and what I consider their three best wins in the weight class (to offer a sense of their level of competition and what they achieved at their peak).
10) David Benavidez
Pro record: 29-0 (24 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 9-0 (6 KOs)
Best wins: KO 6 Demetrius Andrade, W 12 Caleb Plant, KO 9 Anthony Dirrell
Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are that I put Benavidez on this list. I figured either Chris Eubank or Nigel Benn would snag this spot, and expected Sven Ottke or Lucian Bute would be ahead of Benavidez as well. But I looked closely at what they each did at 168. Benn had one signature win at the weight — the tragic fight with Gerald McClellan — and otherwise his top wins came against Mauro Galvano and Juan Carlos Gimenez while he drew with Eubank and lost to Sugarboy Malinga and Steve Collins. Eubank also had a tragic best win, against Michael Watson, and beat Graciano Rocchigiani and Gimenez and also lost three times at the weight.
It’s always tough in rankings like these to pick between Eubank and Benn. Thanks to Benavidez, I don’t have to. “The Mexican Monster” was flat-out awesome against Andrade and put a beating on Plant, two wins that compare favorably to the best wins by Eubank or Benn (or Ottke or Bute) at 168. He never lost at the weight and only had one close call (the first fight with Ronald Gavril, clarified with a shutout in the rematch). It may seem jarring at first glance, but on close inspection, I feel the dominant, dangerous, and, yes, ducked Benavidez had a top-10 super middleweight tenure.
9) Steve Collins
Pro record: 36-3 (21 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 8-0 (5 KOs)
Best wins: W 12 Chris Eubank, W 12 Chris Eubank, KO 6 Nigel Benn
Eubank and Benn don’t quite make the cut, but the guy who beat them twice apiece certainly does. The Irishman is nobody’s idea of an all-time great middleweight, having lost competitive decisions there between 1990-92 to Mike McCallum, Reggie Johnson, and Sumbu Kalambay, but once he moved up in weight, he never lost again. Maybe he caught Eubank and Benn at the right time (especially Benn, who retired after his two losses to Collins), and the Eubank fights were close (Collins got off the deck to win a decision the first time and won a split verdict in the rematch), but going 4-0 against that duo is still impressive. He retired in 1997 at age 33 due to some combination of injuries and inability to secure a fight with Roy Jones — leaving a mandatory defense against some kid named Joe Calzaghe on the table. It’s a fascinating “what if” that certainly could have impacted these all-time super middleweight rankings.
8) James Toney
Pro record: 77-10-3 (47 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 4-1 (3 KOs)
Best wins: KO 9 Iran Barkley, KO 12 Prince Charles Williams, KO 4 Tim Littles
Nobody on this list had fewer 168-pound title fights than Toney, but he got a lot done in a short amount of time — including briefly claiming the top spot on a lot of experts’ pound-for-pound lists due to his spectacular performances at this weight. (And he also had a fair few earlier non-title fights for which he weighed in the 162-163-pound range, for what that’s worth.) The KOs of Barkley and Williams were two of the most impressive victories of a Hall of Fame career, and the win over Littles was memorable because Toney had suffered a cut and showed just how great he was capable of being when the urgency was dialed up. Sure, he got his ass handed to him by Roy Jones, but so did pretty much everyone else who fought Jones in the ‘90s. It was an inglorious end to Toney’s super middleweight tenure, but that doesn’t erase how glorious it had been up until then.
7) Chong-Pal Park
Pro record: 46-5-1 (39 KOs), 1 no-contest
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 11-1 (8 KOs), 1 no-contest
Best wins: KO 11 Murray Sutherland, KO 15 Vinnie Curto, W 15 Lindell Holmes
In the final paragraph of the introduction to this article, the words “or 15-rounders” were included specifically for Park. He was the division’s second-ever titleholder, reigned for nearly four years, and fought nine scheduled 15-rounders over the final few years prior to those last three rounds getting permanently lopped off. Was the division overflowing with elite talent when it was first formed? Not exactly, but Sutherland, Curto, and Holmes (whom Park eked by via split decision at home in South Korea) were all credible. Park couldn’t get by Fulgencio Obelmejias (he lost to him at middleweight in ’81 and at super middle in ’88), but otherwise he beat the best of what the division had to offer before the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns began showing an interest in snagging belts there.
6) Mikkel Kessler
Pro record: 46-3 (35 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 16-3 (12 KOs)
Best wins: W 12 Carl Froch, KO 7 Manny Siaca, W 12 Librado Andrade
That list of “best wins” directly above this line leaves out quite possibly the No. 1 performance of Kessler’s career: a competitive-all-the-way decision loss to Joe Calzaghe in which both men were magnificent. Apologies for the implied spoiler about what’s to come on this list, but Kessler only ever lost to three of the best in division history in Calzaghe, Andre Ward, and Froch. But enough about the losing efforts. The Dane also outpointed Froch in their fast-paced first fight during the Super Six tournament, shut out the same Andrade who would soon nearly knock out Lucian Bute, decisioned Anthony Mundine, and dominated and stopped the likes of Siaca, Eric Lucas, Markus Beyer, and Allan Green. Kessler was probably, in retrospect, the second-best super middleweight in the world for about a full decade. And there’s certainly no shame in that when you look at who he shared the era with.
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5) Canelo Alvarez
Pro record: 61-2-2 (39 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 10-0 (4 KOs)
Best wins: KO 11 Caleb Plant, W 12 Callum Smith, W 12 Jermell Charlo
At 34, Canelo may still have some prime-ish years left, and those years may well be spent at super middleweight, so his ranking here is very much subject to change. But based on what he’s done so far — ruling the division for the last four years, unifying all the belts, and beating several very good fighters but no great ones in their prime (while finding excuses not to face the top contender to his lineal title, a possibly great fighter in his prime) — this spot just inside the top 5 feels right. Smith, Plant, and Billy Joe Saunders were all undefeated when Alvarez beat them up. Gennady Golovkin was a nice name to finally put on his record controversy-free (if unimpressively). His work in this division in 2020 and ‘21 got him to the top of the pound-for-pound list, and it was only a failed jump to light heavyweight that knocked him out of consideration for that position. What a shame it is that Canelo hasn’t been willing to test himself against David Benavidez the way he was so eager to against Dmitry Bivol.
4) Carl Froch
Pro record: 33-2 (24 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 21-2 (14 KOs)
Best wins: KO 5 Lucian Bute, W 12 Mikkel Kessler, W 12 Arthur Abraham
If Froch were fighting today, he certainly wouldn’t be reluctant to face Benavidez. “The Cobra” fought everyone, with very few soft touches mixed in. Look at this list of names he took on, all in a six-year span: Ward, Kessler (twice), Bute, Andre Dirrell, Arthur Abraham, Glen Johnson, Jermain Taylor, Jean Pascal, Robin Reid, and George Groves (twice). And he went 10-2 in those bouts. Nobody else in division history has come close to facing that many opponents of that caliber. And he was perpetually underestimated — not expected to do well in the Super Six, predicted by many to lose to Bute, winning over and over again in fights that were perceived as 50-50s coming in. Froch may not know what shape the Earth is, but that just means he was a guy who would travel to the ends of it, rather than all around it, to find the toughest possible challenge.
3) Roy Jones
Pro record: 66-10 (47 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 7-0 (6 KOs)
Best wins: W 12 James Toney, KO 6 Vinny Pazienza, KO 2 Bryant Brannon
If you’re ranking super middleweights purely on who beats whom on their best night, you can make an extremely strong case for Jones at No. 1. And if we were doing these rankings after 20 years of the division’s existence instead of 40 years, Jones would be the only choice. But, given his relatively brief stay at 168, Roy’s accomplishments here were surpassed decisively enough to knock him down a couple of pegs despite his otherworldly abilities. Clearly, his domination of Toney in ’94 in his first title fight at super middle was his crowning achievement in the division — and is probably better than the best win of any other fighter on this list. But Jones’ super middleweight resume gets thin quickly after that. Pazienza some 33 pounds over his best weight? Antoine “T-Byrd” Byrd? Tony “The Punching Postman” Thornton? Eric Lucas in a fight so uninteresting to Jones that he played basketball the same day? Brannon? Well, at least that mismatch gave us those ridiculous rapid-fire left hook highlights that got replayed the rest of Jones’ career. Roy was unreal during his two years as a super middleweight. But he was also largely untested, and that limits his all-time ranking.
2) Andre Ward
Pro record: 32-0 (16 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 10-0 (2 KOs)
Best wins: Tech. Win 11 Mikkel Kessler, W 12 Carl Froch, KO 10 Chad Dawson
There’s nothing terribly exciting about seeing Ward’s name so close to the top of this countdown. He wasn’t as freakishly athletic as Jones, didn’t make action-packed fights like Froch, didn’t have the star power of Canelo. He was just the most efficient boxer this weight class has ever known. And in his roughly five years taking on world-class super middleweights, none came very close to beating him. Ward ran through Showtime’s Super Six tournament with stunning ease, upsetting pre-tourney favorite Kessler, barely losing a round against Allan Green, Sakio Bika, or Arthur Abraham, and winning the finals over Froch comfortably (no matter what the scores said) despite a broken left hand. Outside the tournament, he stopped lineal light heavyweight champ Dawson at 168 and outpointed Edison Miranda. Ward was a dominant super middleweight champ who faced plenty of top-quality opposition, and simply lacked the longevity to make a strong case for the No. 1 spot all-time.
1) Joe Calzaghe
Pro record: 46-0 (32 KOs)
Super middleweight 12-rounder record: 24-0 (13 KOs)
Best wins: W 12 Mikkel Kessler, W 12 Jeff Lacy, W 12 Chris Eubank
Few in the boxing media sphere were more skeptical of Calzaghe for a longer period of time than I was. He lacked technique, he threw arm punches, he spent most of his run holding only the most lightly regarded of the alphabet belts, and the refs when he fought in Cardiff had a funny habit of stopping his fights the first time the opponent wobbled. Even when he was 40-0 and had held a title for 8½ years, I remained unconvinced. Then the brilliant Hall of Fame Welsh southpaw went ahead and convinced me. He beat down Lacy, outfought Kessler, and capped his 168-pound reign in such a way that it reframed much of what had come before and forced me to appreciate him. His technique wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t textbook. The punches may have looked like arm punches, but they landed with enough sting to get the job done. He eventually consolidated the other belts and became the true lineal champ. As for the quick stoppages … well, I still say the Byron Mitchell ending was total BS, but given my delayed appreciation for Calzaghe’s greatness, I can say with confidence he was on his way to stopping Mitchell legitimately before too long. In the end, he had a magnificent full-decade run at the top before finally moving up to 175 pounds, and though there was a lot of fluff mixed in among his resume, Calzaghe repeatedly brought his A-game when the stakes were highest.
We’ll see what Canelo does against Berlanga on Saturday, but I can say without hesitation that prime Calzaghe would’ve taken care of business against the limited Puerto Rican banger within three rounds.
(Especially if the fight was in Cardiff.)
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, Ringside Seat, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X or LinkedIn, or via email at [email protected].
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