Has anybody heard of David Reid ? He won the Olympic gold in Atlanta. He's the former WBA super Welterweight champion - winning against Laurent Boudouani and then defending it twice before losing his title on points to Felix Trinadad. His career only spanned 4 years from 1997-2001 and he had only 19 professional fight with 17 wins and two defeats. He then had to retire due to injury. This is a remarkably short career for a world champion. Is there anyone else who had so few fights or had a career that was even shorter in time but still became a world champion?
Short careers offhand are Saensak Muangsurin who had his career wrapped up in 20 fights. And that is including winning the title in his 3rd pro fight and about 10 defenses over 2 reigns. Also Jim Jeffries with 23 and Keith Mullings with 25. But there is a light fly champ reigning today with an 8-0 record named Inoue (can't think of his first name), so the jury is still out how long he will be around. Also, thinking about it now, Yoko Gushiken wrapped up his career pretty quick. Can't think of it without looking it up.
Yes. I think we all know David Reid. Reid arguably should've lost the Garcia and Brantley fights, too. I haven't seen them since that time, but I recall them both being questionable decisions. He had a droopy eyelid that tended to close when he got hit ... so he was fighting with basically one eye open a lot of the time. He kept having surgery on the eyelid, but it didn't help. Leo Randolph also had a short career. He was an Olympic Gold Medalist in 1976. He turned pro, won a world title against a respected champion (Ricardo Cardona), lost the title and retired with a 17-2 record ... all in just TWO years. Randolph didn't even want to turn pro. He just did it to make some quick money and get out - which he did. Here he is winning the title against Ricardo Cardona. Very good fight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx0MgPQyHX8
Yup. He gave Trinidad fits for the first 6 rounds. Very athletic and a well educated jab. They had to rush his career because of his drooping eyelid. There is a great article on ringtv from 2012 about him.
Dimitri Pirog had 20 fights and won a title. A very short career just when he burst out against Danny Jacobs he was done after 3 more fights. Back injuries I believe.
Fernando Vargas was a brightstar. He had 31 fights with the last few years of his career being nothing like the crafty boxer/puncher who fought Trinidad and Winky.
I thought he was done. No real word from his camp about any new plans. Its been almost 3 full years without a fight. Its a shame, the guy was a lot of fun to watch. Great skills for someone so young and a real natural. He didn't box at all in the classical euro style and had a beautiful rhythm along with neat footwork for a stalker.
Short in terms of length spent in years, or number of pro fights? ATG Michael Spinks had just 32 pro fights
Jeffries had 22 fights Corbett 18 And talking of Olympians, Leo Randolph comes to mind, he had 19 fights in 26 months. Jeff Fenech managed to challenged for world titles in five weights, winning in three, in a 33 fight career.
He'd been a successful kickboxer previously and was already drawing big crowds in Thailand. His two wins had been against a top 10 contender (Lion Furuyama) and a decent trialhorse (Rudy Barro). Nowadays some guys have 30 wins without having fought that level of competition.
South Africa's Vic Toweel was world bantamweight champion in his 14th bout and retired at 25 in a 32 fight career.
Yes I saw his professional debut against Jose Calderon back around 1996 or 1997. very good fighter with as much potential as anyone but didn't last.