What Fighters Acheived Greatness In The Shortest Time?

Whitaker, Sanchez and Gomez = sub 50.

 

Leonard was a good call by JT, as was Armstrong by bodhi and Saldivar by GP.

It might not be quite the same thing, but McLarnin has to be the dog's bollocks in fitting sheer depth of greatness into the lowest number of fights. Remarkable.

Lennox Lewis. 44 fights.

Whether or not you'd qualify them as greats is up for debate, but little men like Gushiken and Arbachakov won world titles in their 9th and 13th fights respectively and went on to make numerous defences. I think Chang, Moon and the Galaxy brothers are the same if my memory is fully functional.

 

Never.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Good post by the way.

 

Maybe not a great fighter..but it could be argued that winning the heavyweight championship of the world is "acheiving greatness"

 

Azumah Nelson only had 47 fights.

He gave Sanchez fits in his 14th fight,Ko'd Gomez in his 21st fight and got revenge on Fenech in just his 38th fight.

In all 24 of his fights were world title fights,a very high number for a guy with fewer than 50 fights.

 

I'm not sure they are great or not. but these 2 recent guys showed immediately they were a diamond not requiring much polishing--Qawi and Tszyu.

Look at the level of competition Tszyu was fighting and actually being a road warrior to boot. Man, he was in deep waters right of the bat.

And it was easy to tell how formidable Qawi was watching that real early development of his on ESPN fights. Maybe it took that Rossman ko for everyone to take notice, but that guy's development was tremendous. And he just had that prison background and not that long amateur career like Kostya had. Plus, being so short and giving up a ton of reach in every fight leaves not much of a margin for error.

 

Any truth in the rumour he shat in your corn flakes when you were really young?

 

Aaron Pryor had just 40 fights going 39-1 (35)

Some argue whether or not he was that great but his body of work and dominance in such a short space of time is super impressive.

 

Mike Tyson:

Took 1 year, 8 months from turning pro to get the WBC title from Berbick

Took 2 years, 5 months from turning pro to get the Heavyweight Triple Crown (unifying the WBC, WBA & IBF belts) against Tucker.

Took 3 years, 3 months from turning pro to get the Ring Magazine title from Spinks.

 

George Foreman.

With no amateur career to speak of, he wrested an Olympic gold medal and, in his 38th pro fight --more importantly, in only his 43rd month as a professional-- lifted the heavyweight championship of the world against an undefeated champion who boasted Muhammad Ali's scalp over his shoulder, in perhaps the most devastating fashion in boxing history.

 

Very debatable if they are true greats, but Chitalada and Sahaprom were as good as they ever were as fighters from their first 12/15 round fights.

Not that they achieved greatness then, but just looking at things from a slightly different slant, both are worth a mention.

 

Michael Spinks cleared up at 175lbs in about a 7 year period from first turning professional.

 

This

 

Leonard achieved greatness within 5 years of turning pro. Id say after he beat Hearns he earned greatness, he had already beaten Duran in the rematch and Benitez in only his 3rd year as a pro.

 

I think Benitez qualifies here in beating Cervantes at 17 then Palomino at 20 & Hope at 22 years of age for the Lt/Welter/Welter & Lt/Middle crowns. Truly incredible.