Worst run as champ?

Zurdo has to be up there

 

I doubt that he qualifies for “worst” but Jermain Taylor certainly was very disappointing.

 

Hopkins, Wright, Ouma, Spinks, Pavlik? Seems a bit harsh.

 

Wilders really is up there as one of the worst reigns ever

In recent years only Adonis comes close

Ricky Burns was **** too

 

zurdo is number 1 currently.

 

Should've lost to Hopkins and Wright, was beaten by Pavlik. Didn't exactly impressively beat smallish guys Ouma and Spinks either.

 

My point was they weren't terrible opponents. I guess a run of gifts if that's what you think they were is pretty **** though just not in the way my question I envisaged.

 

Well, his rematch with Bernard was close - although he dethroned the long reigning champ he never really won convincingly. It seemed more like a case of TPTB wanting to usher Bernard out and bring someone who was more fan friendly.
Wright, Ouma and Spinks were all 154lbers and JT took a lot of flak for fighting these smaller guys. But not only were they smaller, he struggled to look good against them.
And when he did fight a legit 160 guy in Pavlik it ended disastrously for him.
Although I liked Taylor I think when compared to the hope that JT had as a young, athletic, likable Olympic medalist his championship run was very disappointing.

 

I hear you but think his run is considerably better than a lot of the others mentioned. JCC has huge stretches in which a number of total no hopers with records like 1-15 thrown in amongst legit contenders.

 

Billy Joe Saunders, to me.

 

I'd say Felix Sturm. I just looked through his record and the only recognizable name was De La Hoya. And I think that was before he won the title. After he won the title he fought some great tomato cans.

 

Andre Berto's was pretty bad. The soft touches, IMO, really stunted his development as a pro.

 

Truth right here. Honestly, i'm one who had Taylor beating all, if somewhat closely. Hopkins did what he had done too often, not let his hands go enough. That cost him. Spinks and Ouma gave him pretty good fights as well.

 

Taylor's run is as champ can never be seen as "the worst." Any run as champ that includes a win over Hopkins can't be seen as the worst. Yeah I know the fight was close and both could have gone the other way but they didn't.

As big of a Pavlik fan as I was his run was terrible if we're talking about actual title defenses. If he spent less time in rehab and more time training and making bigger fights things may have been different. Guy fought Martinez two weeks after leaving rehab.

Also as an aside it's one of the biggest head scratchers for me that Winky turned down 5M for a Taylor rematch.

 

There are a few German fighters of that era with a string of shocking defences.