https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fIHFLem59s
In the third and latest historical divisional rankings experiment, we turn our eyes to the super middleweight division. Who were the top 20 super middleweights of all time? It is an intriguing topic that has undoubtedly been the cause of its fair share of heated discussions.
Long running debates of this nature are something that has captivated boxing fans and historians alike for many years. Ranking athletes from different eras is a tricky business that usually boils down to personal preference and opinion, and this is just as true in professional boxing as it is in any other organized professional sport.
These types of rankings constitute a very subjective scope. There is no universally agreed upon criteria to rank boxers from different eras, and this results in all types of differences of opinion. There is simply no perfect way of doing this.
But even though we can never expect a complete consensus, we do experience some level of consensus collectively. Most observers would agree that Ezzard Charles is one of the very greatest light heavyweights in the long rich history of professional boxing, but not all observers would necessarily agree that he is #1 of all time.
This episode of Rummy’s Corner is the third and latest installment of an ongoing series that tries to remove personal bias when conducting this type of historical rankings. In order to do this, an equation was created in order to help accomplish this. The equation, “Rummy’s Equation”, takes three factors into consideration – all of which are based on historical top 3 annual rankings and cumulative total title defenses. At the onset of these rankings experiment, I had no idea what the results would be when the data was compiled for all of the weight weight classes, and this time around I thought they were quite surprising.
Ring Magazine has a rich archives of historical data, dating back to 1924 for the original eight weight classes, and by and large, Ring Magazine has been a fairly consistent and objective publication historically. Therefore, the annual rankings from Ring Magazine are being used as a reference point to calculate the numbers. Since Ring Magazine did not begin tabulating annual rankings for the super middleweight division until 1989, that will be the point in history at which our analysis begins of the 168 pound weight class..
Please watch and enjoy the video! And let us know who you think are the Top 20 Super Middleweights of all time.