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Who is boxing's next middleweight superstar?
In the 1980s – a period of bold fashion and blockbuster entertainment - the middleweight division in boxing did not so much ask for your attention as smash you with two left hooks to the liver and insist upon it.
Men like Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns were dishing it up to each other in super fights dripping in violence and drama, and even in the UK Michael Watson and Nigel Benn waged war in an epic six round shootout inside a super tent in Finsbury Park. Looking back, it was an era that dealt in fighters who seemed chiselled from myth as well as muscle.
And more recently fight fans have been spoiled by the epic rivalry between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin.
In 2026 however there is no doubt that what the division lacks is a star. Not just a champion, not just a belt holder, but a superstar who makes you cancel your Saturday evening plans because they might, just might, serve up something unforgettable in the ring later that night.
Carlos Adames is the WBC belt holder, and he can fight. The wily Cuban Erislandy Lara holds the WBA belt and remains a tough night’s work for anyone, even at the venerable age of 43.
The IBF title is vacant, and then we have the WBO. Their champion? Janibek Alimkhanuly, a fighter who somehow still holds their 160 strap despite the fact he is currently serving a one-year suspension from said organisation for failing a drugs test.
I mean seriously. Is suspending him but allowing him to keep his title even a punishment?
For me it feels more like a punishment for the top contenders for the WBO belt - clean fighters in their rankings who haven’t popped for PED’s - whose world title ambitions with that particular governing body have essentially been parked for a year (suspending someone but allowing them to keep the belt essentially puts a belt out of commission for the period of suspension).
Denzel Bentley won the WBO Interim middleweight title with a stoppage victory over Endry Saavedra at the O2 back in April.
However, the likeable Londoner won’t be able to fight for the title proper under after Alimkhanuly’s suspension date ends (likely December 2026).
Even by boxing’s standards, it’s a bizarre old state of affairs. A positive drugs test ought not to be the beginning of a debate; it should be the end of one.
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This is not merely about Alimkhanuly.
It is about the message sent to every contender grinding away in anonymity: that the rules of the sport are firm until they become inconvenient.
It’s not ideal. In fact, you can almost hear iconic old fights scribes such as Normal Mailer and Bert Randolph Sugar groaning as they sharpen their quills in quiet incredulity.
But it’s not all doom and gloom.
The WBO – like its alphabet brethren – are always going to WBO but as sure as Tuesday follows Monday a new star will eventually emerge at 160.
Could it be George Liddard 14-0 (8) - the British and Commonwealth middleweight king of whom big things are expected?
Liddard - from Billericay in Essex - outpointed former European champ Tyler Denny live on DAZN at London's Copper Box Arena in March, and he is a fighter who is getting his promoter Eddie Hearn quite hot under the collar.
American Amari Jones is 17-0 (15) and is another middleweight prospect with a high ceiling. There are others.
And so, despite the idiocracy that persists in the sport at times, it’s reassuring to know that the old glove game will always mint superstars as long as talented young men – and women - want to solve the ancient question of who hits hardest and lasts longest.
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