Janibek No. 1 middleweight but what's it mean in a bad division?
Plus tons more random thoughts: Bad refereeing robs Barroso, endangers Butler; heavyweight standstill frustrating; Canelo's hometown return was welcome and PPV grade; I'm all in for Prograis-Matias
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The middleweight division is as weak as I can ever remember and as uninteresting as any in boxing other than maybe strawweight. Janibek Alimkhanuly, who obliterated the overmatched Steven Butler via violent second-round destruction to retain the WBO title on Saturday, is probably No. 1, but he’s not competing against much for the honor.
Next month will mark two years since WBC titlist Jermall Charlo has boxed and it’s just weird to me he hasn’t been stripped or, at the very least, made an “in recess” titleholder until he resumes his career. Either way, he cannot be considered a factor since he doesn’t fight, and the last time he did fight he looked pedestrian. Carlos Adames holds the WBC interim belt but is still pretty new to the division and should handle former junior middleweight titlist Julian Williams next month.
Forty-year-old Erislandy Lara was an accomplished junior middleweight titlist but has not faced a legit opponent in four years and has beaten two third-rate opponents since moving to middleweight, where the WBA gifted him a title he will defend in August at a catch weight against Danny Garcia, who has won titles at junior welterweight and welterweight but seen better days. The IBF title is vacant and the fight to fill it won’t remind anyone of a mega fight: Esquiva Falcao vs. Vincenzo Gualtieri.
The division is suffering from an exodus of talent. Canelo Alvarez moved up and now rules at super middleweight. Gennadiy Golovkin is semi-retired at age 41 after vacating two belts earlier this year and he may be done for good. Demetrius Andrade, Danny Jacobs, Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Jaime Munguia have all moved up in weight in the past couple of years.
One of boxing’s most popular and glamorous divisions has fallen on hard, hard times.
I’m still sick over how badly Ismael Barroso was hosed out of a potential vacant junior welterweight title win against Rolly Romero on Saturday thanks to perhaps the most egregious and uncalled for stoppage I’ve ever seen in 40-plus years of watching boxing when referee Tony Weeks,