What's The Nearest Thing To Louis's "Bum of the month club ''?

Counting Alphabet champs, Wilder is the first that sprung to mind...

 

Wladimir Klitschko

 

Most of John L. Sullivan’s reign, especially when he went on tour with the challenge of fighting any local who can last 4 rounds with him.

 

Foreman’s “lineal” reign in the 90s.

 

Seconding Wladimir. 2005-2015 was a hell of a stretch for him.

 

Wilder

 

Joe Louis must be spinning in his grave right now.

Whatever you think about Louis's opponents, the overwhelming majority of them had a top ten ranking on fight night.

This was clearly not some belt milking exercise.

 

Henry Armstrong’s 20 title defenses at 147. Out of the 20, I counted 4 worthy of a shot at the welterweight title

 

"Low Risk Larry Holmes" sets the standard here. He hit all three Euro Bums- Zanon, Rodriguez and Evangelista, which on its own gets him a mention on this thread.

I wish he had locked this award down by squeezing in a comebacking Bepi Ros and a couple toughies against Rudi Gauwe and Al Syben.

 

Sammy Serrano had one of the most inauspicious title reigns. Only a handful of worthy challengers out of about 15 title defenses. He really owed a lot to the WBA.

 

I don't think that many really understand the "Bum Of The Month" thing.
Back then top contenders fought one another because there was only one Top Ten to be part of because there was only one world champion. So the top fighters fought for that opportunity to fight for a title and you had to fight to get paid. Today there are 4 'world' championships available so you can get a ranking, sit around and do nothing and your time will come. Then you have a champion that is looking to fight a lot and a couple things happen there.
First, top contenders are fighting one another to be #1, to make the public demand that they get a shot. You got paid then by selling tickets.The top guys were fighting each other and were not available on a monthly basis. Second, the champion that is looking to fight every month also wants to get paid. The promoter putting on the show wants to get paid. What sells better? A Joe Louis non title fight or Joe Louis defending his title?
In this day and age, with even one of the potentially 4 world champions fighting every month, we would run out of 'contenders' real quick.

 

Honorable mention to Michael Moorer's WBO challengers. Victor Claudio? Danny Stonewalker? Mario Melo? Marcellus Allen?

These guys are incredibly obscure, no?

 

To me its always been the run-up to Ali's forced exile when he fought Patterson (11-22-65), Chuvalo (3-29-66), Cooper (5-21-66), London (8-6-66), Mildenberger (9-10-66), Williams (11-14-66), Terrell (2-6-67), and Folley (3-22-67) which was an amazing sequence of defenses for that era. To me, this sequence defines the greatness of Ali. After years of desultory championship reigns in the heavyweight division, Ali really gave everybody a chance and cleaned up the division.

 

My understanding is the bum of the month club was his 13 wins from January 39 to mid 41. I believe the 13 fights contained 6 top ten contenders. Unless my understanding is wrong that's certainly not the overwhelming majority.

Grey has explained the dynamics of the Bum of the month club quite well in his post.