Middleweight World Championship Series Middleweight World Championship Series The Middleweight World Championship Series was a boxing round-robin tournament staged by Don King Productions. The goal of the series was to produce a unified Middleweight boxing champion. The victor took the WBC, WBA, IBF and vacant Ring Magazine 160-pound belts home, and became the first undisputed middleweight king since Marvellous Marvin Hagler held the distinction from 1979 until 1987. The victor was also awarded a specially commissioned "Sugar" Ray Robinson trophy. The contenders in the tournament were William Joppy(WBA champion), Keith Holmes(WBC champion), Bernard Hopkins(IBF champion), and Félix Trinidad. The semifinals pitted Trinidad against Joppy
Alan Minter out Maurice Thomas in six rounds. Minter won five fights in a row by knockout and, in 1973, Pat Dwyer became the first boxer to go the distance with him, over eight rounds in London. Minter won his next five fights, three by knockout, before tasting defeat for the first time after the referee stopped the fight in the eighth round to "Scottish" Don McMillan due to bad cuts suffered by Minter. Two more wins followed before facing Jan Magziarz, who beat him twice in a row (once in the eighth and once in the sixth) again due to cuts.