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What is the Middleweight Division?
This can be broken down into three different divisions. There is the Light Middleweight (147-154 lbs), followed by the glamour of the Middleweight division, which is open to boxers weighing between 154-160 lbs. For the heavier boxers, the Super Middleweight division is open to weights of 160-168 lbs.
You may find fighters slimming down to make the Middleweight weight or bulking up to get into the Light Heavyweight division rather than fighting in the Super Middleweight division. Still, it has been a favourite for the British fighters with the likes of Joe Calzaghe, Carl Froch, Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders all previous champions.
The middleweight is a very competitive division in boxing, the OLBG best boxing tipsters love this division because you can often find a bit of value, it's a division where the Americans have always seemed to hold the upper hand in, the Brits seem to prefer the Super Middleweight division, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubanks and Billy Joe Saunders were all champions in this division.
Bernard Hopkins is probably the most famous name when it comes to Middleweight champions, and in more recent times, Gennady Golovkin or 'Triple G' as he is known.
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Previous Middleweight Champions of the World
As already mentioned, when you talk about middleweight champions, the first name which springs to mind for most boxing fans will be Bernard Hopkins, the 'Executioner' who reigned in the middleweight division for over a decade, he held the world title in total for ten years, two months and eighteen days, during that time he successfully defended his title twenty times and this is a man who lost on his debut! However, as they always say, it's how you react to a defeat that makes you a great fighter, and he went on to a distinguished career in boxing.
Tommy Ryan is the man who has come closest to Hopkins's reign but he is still some way off with his eight years, seven months and four days and during that time, he only faced six opponents, Gennady Golovkin would have been closing in on Bernard Hopkins but for defeat to Saul Alvarez in 2018 that put an end to that when he had successfully defended his title twenty times which he held for seven years, eleven months and one day.
Longest Reigning Middleweight Champions
- Bernard Hopkins (10 years, 2 months, 18 days)
- Tommy Ryan (8 years, 7 months, 4 days)
- Gennady Golovkin (7 years, 11 months, 1 day)
- Tony Zale (6 years, 11 months, 24 days)
- Carlos Monzon (6 years, 9 months, 9 days)
Previous Super Middleweight Champions of the World
The 'Pride of Wales' Joe Calzaghe ruled supreme in the super middleweight division for over a decade. The Welshman went through his entire career without a single defeat, ending with a 46-0 record, which included 32 knockouts and was considered by many to be one of the greatest super middleweights of all-time. 42 of his first 44 fights were in the UK, one of the highlights being when he beat Mikkel Kessler at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in front of 55,000 fans, for his last two career fights he headed over the pond to beat Bernard Hopkins despite being put down in the first round and then beat Roy Jones Jr at Madison Square Garden where he again overcame going down in the first round.
Calzaghe was the longest-reigning champion in this division by some distance, he has reigned by over five years more than anyone else, Andre Ward, another fighter to go unbeaten in their career was next best, this is the man who inflicted one of the two defeats suffered by Carl Froch but during his reign, he only defended his title six times compared to Calzaghe's twenty-one defences and the only other fighter to reign for over five years was Sven Ottke, the German successfully defended his IBF title twenty-one times.
Longest Reigning Super Middleweight Champions
- Joe Calzaghe (10 years, 11 months, 22 days)
- Andre Ward (5 years, 11 months, 21 days)
- Sven Ottke (5 years, 5 months, 3 days)
- Frankie Liles (4 years, 10 months, 0 days)
- Canelo Álvarez (4 years, 8 months, 26 days)
Champions & Rankings
Below you can see the current rankings and champions for each division.
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Experienced betting expert Andy Powell provides you with the most up-to-date and insightful boxing content on this page.
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