Who is the WORST challenger for a world title in HISTORY?

1990-02-25 174¾ David Vedder 175 12-8-3

Civic Center, Bismarck, North Dakota, United States W UD 12 12

referee: Eddie Eckert | judge: Julio Roldan 119-111 | judge: Carol Polis 119-110 | judge: Don O'Neill 119-107
WBA World light heavyweight title

 

how bout ron stander or coopman, or terry daniels, or peter ohkello

 

Howard Clarke against Fernando Vargas

26-10-2 at time of challenge

finished with a 27-79-2 record

 

The worst ever was probably some bartender John L Sullivan fought.

 

I think there was a story last year that some Thai fighters were basically being given fictional records to make them look like respectable opponents, before being fed to the champion. So, probably of those guys who ended up fighting for a Flyweight or Bantamweight title.

 

Yes

 

Tex Cobb wasn't even close to the least deserving challenger and proved that with victories over legit contenders in Shavers and Mercado, as well as by running Dynamite Dokes pretty close in their fight.

He wasn't even the worst challenger that Holmes faced throughout the course of his reign. That honor goes to either Scott Frank, or Lorenzo Zanon, imo.

 

Indeed. If you want to choose Thornberry, fine, but Calzaghe undeniably fought a 'better' version than Ottke did. The Ottke fight was much worse, so I don't know why Calzaghe gets mentioned.

 

Willie Casey vs Rigondeaux.

Matthew Hatton vs Alvarez

 

Carlos Zarate fought the two worst challengers of any major title of which I've heard-

John Mensah Kpalongo

1-4-0, with four losses to someone called "Shittu" and a sole win against a Ghanese journeyman with no recorded wins in his ENTIRE career. Kpalongo had no wins outside of West Africa and had no recorded fights for the previous three years. He entered with a "45-2" record!

[url]http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=155670&cat=boxer[/url]

Then there was Emilio Hernandez, who was only a little better-

[url]http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=13993&cat=boxer[/url]

Don't get me wrong: Zarate was good. But some of his competition was astonishingly bad.

 

Because a thread about shitty defenses is naturally about Calzaghe?

Wait of course it is. Lets not forget Joe's title wasn't even close to legit for at least the first 15 "defenses" so it's difficult to say if this fits.

 

Cobb was still rated in the top 10 a couple years, had wins over an aging Shavers and Mercado, and was competitive with Dokes & Norton.

I don't think that compares to Rademacher getting a title shot in his pro debut. Gold medal or not, defending the HW title against a guy with zero professional fights is awful.

 

Pete Rademacher!

 

Those records may be incomplete.