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Middleweight
Weight class in combat sports
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing
Professional
In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above 154 lb (70 kg) and up to 160 lb (73 kg).
Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1867. Chandler won, becoming known as the American middleweight champion. The first middleweight fight with gloves may have been between George Fulljames and Jack (Nonpareil) Dempsey (no relation to the more famous heavyweightJack Dempsey).
Current world champions
Main article: List of world middleweight boxing champions
Current world rankings
The Ring
As of October 14, 2024.
Keys:
- C Current The Ring world champion
BoxRec
As of February 23, 2025.
Longest reigning world middleweight champions
Below is a list of longest reigning middleweight champions in boxing measured by the individual's longest reign. Career total time as champion (for multiple time champions) is not counted.
| Rank | Name | Title Reign | Title Recognition | Successful Defenses | Beaten opponents | Fights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Bernard Hopkins | 10 years, 2 months, 18 days | IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO | 20 | 17 | |
| 2. | Tommy Ryan | 8 years, 7 months, 4 days | World | 6 | 6 | |
| 3. | Gennady Golovkin | 8 years, 1 months, 1 day | WBA (Super), IBF, WBC | 17 | 14 | |
| 4. | Tony Zale | 6 years, 11 months, 24 days | NBA (current WBA) | 4 | 4 | |
| 5. | Carlos Monzón | 6 years, 9 months, 9 days | WBA, WBC | 14 | 11 | |
| 6. | Marvelous Marvin Hagler | 6 years, 7 months, 10 days | WBC, WBA, IBF | 12 | 10 | |
| 7. | Nonpareil Jack Dempsey | 6 years, 6 months, 15 days | World | 2 | 2 | |
| 8. | Felix S
Beijing 2008 Vladivostok, if loosely translated from Russian, means “to conquer the East”. The Irish Olympic boxing squad of 2008, pictured above, headed to Vladivostok, the home base of the Russian Pacific nuclear fleet, to train and spar with the Russian national team in the run up to the Beijing Olympics. A few weeks later the five-strong squad touched down at Dublin Airport from China with three medals, Irish boxing’s biggest haul since the 1956 Games in Melbourne. Ken Egan claimed silver and the late Darren Sutherland and Paddy Barnes took home bronze, while John Joe Nevin and John Joe Joyce made the last-16. All five Irish boxers were only beaten by the eventual gold medallists in their respective weight categories in Beijing. Egan met China’s Zhang Xiaoping in the light-heavyweight final, but the Asian fighter, who was born in Inner Mongolia, was handed a controversial 11-7 decision and Egan’s dreams of landing gold and joining an illustrious light-heavyweight cast which included Muhammad Ali, who claimed light-heavyweight gold at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, were dashed. Many boxing pundits believe that the final score to Xiaoping, who had been well beaten by Irish 2012 Olympian Darren O’Neill in a Multi Nations tournament prior to Beijing, did not reflect Egan’s performance, that the judges had failed to register some of the Dublin southpaw’s clear cut shots, particularly in the second and third rounds. Egan dropped to his knees after the final bell, as did Xiaoping, in celebration. The 81kg gold medal would not be leaving China. “I genuinely thought that I won that fight by two or three points. If it had of been anywhere in the world I would’ve won, said Egan – who beat Turkey’s Bahram Muzaffer, who controversially beat Ireland’s Joe Ward at the 2012 Olympic qualifiers in Turkey – in Beijing. “Everyone says to me I went to the Olympics and I won the silver. I lost the gold in the final; that’s how I look at it. Oka This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Sept. 18 NFL Preview Issue. Subscribe today! It is, conservatively speaking, about 9 million degrees inside Abel Sanchez's boxing gym in Big Bear Lake, California, and still his prized fighter, world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, is in the ring doing chin pushups -- wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants. Yes, chin pushups. Arms behind his back, his chin rests on a towel, bearing the full weight of his 170-pound frame. He dips within inches of the canvas and rises back up. At the end of the set, he turns on his back, wraps the towel around his head and face, loops a rope with a weight attached to the end of it around his neck and does a set of what can only be described as blind, hanging, weighted neck crunches. Golovkin conditions each part of his sinewy frame like this, in rigorous isolation drills. The chin must withstand pain. The neck must be strong enough to absorb punches. To give him strength to fight inside, he works his forearms -- which he often has trouble fitting in the sleeves of a normal dress shirt -- with resistance bands and a homemade contraption of steel and rope pulleys that his trainer affectionately calls "the machine." Decades of such rigorous training have seen Golovkin establish himself as one of the best fighters of his generation. He has defended his middleweight title 18 times over the past seven years, putting him within range of Bernard Hopkins' record of 20 defenses in his division. So it's not surprising that he's had trouble persuading boxing's biggest names to get into the ring with him. "I understand," Golovkin says. "It's too dangerous. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much money [you offer]; people don't want to lose reputation." This happens far too often in boxing -- the best fighters simply don't fight one another. It's why Golovkin's Sept. 16 showdown with Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez is being billed as the superfight that actually will live up to . |