TOO BIG, TOO GOOD

Mikey Garcia will be consoled by the fact he isn’t the first boxer to realise size matters

1. JOSE NAPOLES VS. CARLOS MONZON

Cuban welterweight champion Napoles skipped junior-middleweight to challenge the great Argentine middleweight Monzon in 1974. He was unable to answer the bell for round seven.

2. AMIR KHAN VS. SAUL ALVAREZ

Khan’s jump from welterweight to middle [a 155lb catchweight] was as ludicrous as many presumed. Khan boxed and moved early, but was then flattened by the mother of all Alvarez right hands in round six.

3. KELL BROOK VS. GENNADY GOLOVKIN

Apparently daring to be great, Brook’s move from welterweight to middleweight was a bizarre and damaging one. Rocked in the opening seconds, Brook fought bravely for a few rounds before he was disfigured and stopped by Golovkin in the fifth.

4. ADRIEN BRONER VS. MARCOS MAIDANA

Broner, a gifted super-feather and lightweight champion, didn’t hang around long in either weightclass. He landed at welter to be humbled by Maidana.

5. GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX VS. VASYL LOMACHENKO

Cuban amateur star Rigondeaux was struggling for opponents and fanfare at super-bantamweight, so decided to leap to super-featherweight and meet fellow genius Lomachenko. He was retired after six rounds.

6. JAMES TONEY VS. MONTELL GRIFFIN

Toney was no stranger to jumping around the weight classes. In 1996, following struggles making middleweight and super-middle, he ventured to lightheavyweight but was greeted there by Montell Griffin, who delivered him a shock split-decision defeat.

7. WINKY WRIGHT VS. BERNARD HOPKINS

Former middleweight champions Wright and Hopkins met at a 170lbs catchweight in 2007. For Wright this fight, 10 pounds above middle, was a step too far.

8. CHRIS EUBANK VS. CARL THOMPSON

After losing to Joe Calzaghe in a super-middleweight fight in 1997, Eubank regrouped and returned as a cruiserweight. There he lost consecutive fights to the bigger, stronger Carl Thompson and soon retired.

9. SUGAR RAY ROBINSON VS. JOEY MAXIM

Robinson, who started as a lightweight, ruled the welter and middleweight divisions and had lost only two of his 135 pro fights when challenging Maxim at light-heavy. Beaten by the 103-degree heat, Robinson, ahead on the cards, was unable to come out for round 13.

10. IKE QUARTEY VS. FERNANDO VARGAS

Even though Ghana’s Quartey, a former WBA welterweight champion, possessed one of the best jabs in boxing, it wasn’t enough to get the job done against Vargas in his first fight as a junior-middleweight.