Boxers who fought a veteran / champion very early in their pro career

Fred Apostoli fought a 93-2-11 Freddie Steele in his 7th contest.

 

The first thing that came to mind was Leon Spinks. I know he didn't fight the ex champion (Muhammad Ali) but it was very early in his career.

 

Bonavena - Foley

Patterson - Maxim

Nelson - Sanchez

Boza - Arguello (kinda)

Mancini - Arguello

 

Davey Moore 11 fights beat Ayub Kalule former champ 42 fights.

 

Boxers who fought a veteran / former champion very early in their pro career.

Arguello and Sanchez held belts. It's worded a bit funny via the slash but i think current champs are out............probably....perhaps.

 

Langford fought and beat Joe Gans a year into his career, he also fought Barbados Joe Walcott for the title a few months later. He was only 17-18.

 

Yeah, makes more sense now. There are some fine veteran contenders that were never champ especially in the older decades of one title so you've got it covered. Adding current champs will open the floodgates a bit but keep the thread moving better too.

 

Eladio Santana in his second fight fought the former super bantamweight champion Wilfredo Gomez in one of history's most worst matchups. Also a few guys fought Julio Cesar Chavez early in their careers while Chavez was making a jump in weight.

 

yeah and then after 12 he faced Roberto Duran, a two-time former world champion until that night.

 

David Reid at 14-0 faced the former Welterweight champion of the world Felix Trinidad.

 

In my case it was Loma lol, and he didnt fight an ex-champion either

 

Here are a few:

Ruben Navarro (12-0-1) fought and beat reigning jr. lightweight champ Hiroshi Kobayashi in a non-title 10.

Danny Valdez (14-5) fought and beat top featherweight contender Ricardo Gonzalez (95-5-6) over 10 rounds and then had the audacity to repeat the win in a rematch.

Dwight Hawkins (9-4-1) fought and knocked out the reigning bantamweight champ Jose Becerra in 4 rounds.

Jimmy Ellis (5-0) was thrown to the wolves losing in 10 to the 84 bout veteran Holly Mims. By the time Jimmy had 20 pro fights he had also been in the ring with Rory Calhoun, Henry Hank, Don Fullmer, Georgie Benton and Hurricane Carter

 

Bobby Woods turned pro at 15 in 1950 and retired at 21 with a 50-30-8 record in 1956 with a detached retina and who knows what other problems. The rest of his life was tragic, and he came to a bad end. He fought Willie Pep and Harold Dade (twice) in 1952, Cisco Andrade in 1953, Henry Davis (twice), Ralph Dupas, Sandy Saddler, Lulu Perez. and Carlos Chavez in 1954, and Joey Lopes and Jimmy Carter in 1955. He had many other tough fights against contenders. The world champs are underlined. Carter and Saddler were reigning champs at the time. Pretty romantic to have so many tough fights in such a short career, huh?