Then, on April 3, 1982, in Denver, Colorado, Jerry "Wimpy" Halstead stopped Ron Brown in six rounds to win the WAA's inaugural super middleweight title bout.
[2] The current super middleweight division traces its beginning to 1984, when Murray Sutherland defeated Ernie Singletary for the International Boxing Federation version of the title.
The World Boxing Council crowned its first champion in 1988 when Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Donny Lalonde in a fight that was also for its version of the light heavyweight title.
Since the early 1990s, there has been a highly competitive super middleweight division in Britain and Ireland, including the rivalry between Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, and Michael Watson, which included two memorable fights and the tragic injury to Watson, followed by the emergence of Steve Collins, who defeated Benn and Eubank, before retiring and vacating the title, as well as the 10-year reign of Joe Calzaghe.
At the end of the 2000s and start of the 2010s the division was one of the most active in boxing with the likes of Lucian Bute, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Anthony Mundine, Arthur Abraham, Robert Stieglitz, Sakio Bika, Allan Green, Jesse Brinkley, Librado Andrade, Edison Miranda and Jermain Taylor.