Quote Originally Posted by ruthless rocco View Post
moving up in weight while beating current and former world champs garners more respect from me than a guy who's clearing out a shit division and fighting former domestic champions.
Do you give a lot of value to WBO/WBA/WBC trinkets? I don't. Objectively, I thought Macklin beat the number two ranked middleweight, Felix Sturm. Thus, even if he doesn't have a belt now, I hold him in high regard in the division.

Dzinziruk was a world champion, as you define it, when Martinez fought him.

Barker is better than his record suggests in my opinion, but I'll grant that is subjective.