Who was the worst fighter that was a Champion?

A real champion, or a BS belt holder? It matters.

 

At heavyweight If we’re talking lineage then probably either Jim Braddock or Leon Spinks. If we’re talking non lineage then Marvin hart, Bruce Seldon and a handful of others could fill that spot.

 

My late Grandfather always said that Leon Spinks was the worst fighter to hold the Lineal Belt, and he may have been right. But I think it was Marvin Hart, if you accept that he was indeed a Lineal Champion (and that is a different debate).

 

Wild Bill Hanrahan was an early LHW title holder whose sub .500. He got his title off the aformentioned Hart.

He had a 100% KO rate.

There isn't a consensus lineage before 1903 so hes not lineal but not not lineal either.

I think Schreck, Root and Gardner were better LHWs than Hart but he beat Root fair and square. Schreck would go on to win a non lineal HW title from Hart a fight Hart never recovered from. That fight prevented Hart from compiling any sort of HW resume.

At HW I think its Lee Savold. There were points he was top 10 but I think he wasn't one of the 10 or even 15 best HWs of his era. You can't really say that about any other HW champs. He was a Derek Chisora type of figure who was always game but usually lost to a top opponent.

 

Braddock at 195 pounds can beat every pre Liston champion except Louis and Tunney IMO. He was very poorly managed fighting 20 pounds lighter than he should have been for most of his career.

 

John Ruiz.

 

Josh Taylor.

 

P4P wise Nikolai Valuev is a candidate.
Or maybe one of the minimumweight belt holders (wbo or so) with little competition.

 

First off, I loved your grandfather's post on this forum. He was a very nice man that knew his stuff for sure. Regarding Leon, he was a very talented fighter that simply had some bad demons that really affected him especially as a pro. When Leon was a young amateur, he was a 178-7 and won Olympic gold back when the US amateur program was stacked with great fighter's. He was a sober guy back then that was legendary in the St Louis gyms for just destroying folks. By the time he went pro, he started drinking heavily and couldn't make light heavy anymore and had to fight at heavyweight where he really never belonged.

I would argue that he was very talented but undersized but more importantly, he had a substance abuse problem that affected him more than anything else. He also has CTE pretty early on from his gym wars and amateur fights. I also know, he sparred without head gear and easily had an additional 100 or so smokers on his amateur fight total that were not counted on his amateur record.

 

John Ruiz. Some of the worst heavyweight titles fights I have ever watched.

 

Marvin was the lineal champion.

 

They were torture to watch..

 

It's easy to forget that but yes, he was.

 

He was very disputed tho. John L. Sullivan laughed at his claim to be the champion after beating Jack Root.