{"id":649132,"date":"2026-06-20T15:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649132\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T15:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:21:19","slug":"paul-smith-says-todays-super-middleweights-cant-match-past-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649132\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Smith Says Today&#8217;s Super Middleweights Can&#8217;t Match Past Era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxingnews24.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add EBoxing News 24as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqLAgKIiZDQklTRmdnTWFoSUtFR0p2ZUdsdVoyNWxkM015TkM1amIyMG9BQVAB?ceid=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow Boxing News 24 on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d completely agree with you there, Simon,\u201d said Smith to talkSport Boxing. \u201cI\u2019ve said that for the past couple of years on a lot of interviews I\u2019ve done. If you go on BoxRec and look at the top 10, some of the top 10 super middleweights in there have not even had 10 fights yet. If I were to name seven of them to an average boxing fan, they won\u2019t have a clue who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul said the contrast becomes even clearer when compared to the division during his own career, when world-level competition included fighters such as Ward and Arthur Abraham, while the Super Six tournament featured many of the sport\u2019s elite names.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about the British scene, I was British champion. Not once did I ever say I\u2019m the best fighter in Britain,\u201d said Smith. \u201cCarl Froch was number one, George Groves was number two, James DeGale was number three, and I was number four. They were all either world champions or knocking on the door for world titles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others on the panel argued that today\u2019s champions are talented but lack the personalities and name recognition of previous generations. Current titleholders include Christian Mbilli, Hamzah Sheeraz, and Osleys Iglesias, while contenders such as Jaime Munguia, Diego Pacheco, and Lester Martinez are also climbing the rankings.<\/p>\n<p>The discussion comes at a time when the division is entering a new phase following Terence Crawford\u2019s victory over Canelo Alvarez, a result that split the major titles among several fighters and created new opportunities at the top of the weight class.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Youtube video\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\" nopin=\"nopin\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781968879_376_hqdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"182\" data-end=\"497\">Dan Ambrose is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24, recognized for his direct analysis and extensive coverage of the global fight landscape. His reporting focuses on major bouts, divisional developments, and the sport\u2019s most discussed storylines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019d completely agree with you there, Simon,\u201d said Smith to talkSport Boxing. \u201cI\u2019ve said that for the past&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-649132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}