Journeymen who became Champions

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- Distant cousin of Meldrick Taylor. He was 16-10 when he challenged John David Jackson for the WBO title but lost via 8th round KO. Went 6-2-1 after the Jackson fight. His record was 21-13-2 when Michael Nunn offered a fight for WBA Super Middleweight Title.
Little beat Nunn by way of Split Decision, knocking him down in the first round. He lost the title few months later in his first defense to Frankie Liles.

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- As an amateur he lost 5 out of the 6 fights he had and turned pro in 1982. He lost 3 of first 4 fights.
In 1986 with the record of 14-13 he shocked former WBA Super featherweight titlist Roger Mayweather and knocked him out in 6 rounds.
With a 24-16 record he challenged WBC & IBF lightweight titlist and one of the best p4p fighters in the world - Pernell Whitaker. Freddie held his own and lost a close decision.
After Whitaker he won 8 straight and went on to fight for the IBF title (vacated by Whitaker).
He won it in the second fight with Tracy Spann ( the first fight ended by 2nd round TD ). He successfully defended his title once, when he won a decision over orge Paez.
He lost the IBF belt in awar with Rafael Ruelas. Despite dropping Rafael twice in the opening round he lost the decision.
After that he got 3 title shots - in 1996 he lost to Felix Trinidad for IBF welterweight title via 5th round TKO.
In 1997 he was stopped in the 10th round for Vince Phillips IBF light welterweight title.
In 1999 he lost to James Page for WBA welterweight title

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- First Heavyweight champion whose career started with KO loss. In 1979, with a record of 20-8, Weaver got his title shot for WBC HW championship held by legendary Larry Holmes. Holmes stopped him in the twelfth round.
A year later he got another title shot, this time for John Tate's WBA title
Tate dominated him for 14 rounds. 45 seconds before the end , Weaver caught Tate with punch that knocked Tate the **** out ! .
Welliver successfully defended title twice : a 13 th round TKO over Gerrie Coetzee in Coetzee's homeland, South Africa and a 15 round UD over James Tillis. He lost his title to Michael Dokes. He was stopped in the first round (a highly controversial premature stoppage) . He tried to get his title back in the rematch, but Dokes retained his title with controversial draw. In 1985 he unsuccessfully challenged for WBC title held by Pinklon Thomas, Mike was stopped in the 8th round.

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Powerpuncher Jeff Lampkin started out his career with a 16-0, 16KO streak beating up mostly overmatched stiffs, but also beat slow starter (and later big time LHW champ) 'Prince' Charles Williams by TKO6.
Lost his first bout fighting undefeated Willy Edwards and it was all downwards from that point on with a 12-13-1 streak until he got his act together.
He had 5 KO victories in a row winning the USBA title, until he got 'fed' to the British IBF CW Champ Glenn McCrory (yep, the Sky commentator).
This went a little different than expected when he KO'd Glenn in 3 rounds with a devastating shot to the body...
He defended his crown once and went up to Heavyweight, which wasn't much of a success story, ending up a journeyman once more before he retired.

I am expanding this list.

 

Boom!

 

:good
And thank you all.

 

:blood Sergio ? I know it he fought a lot of nobodies but it was because of his promotional situation.
It´s not like he lost a lot of fights. He was more like "protected".