johnny dundee had his first shot in his 80-something fight jack britton had a lot of fights but i dont know how many before his first title shot..but, funny enough the man he fought, ted kid lewis, i think had over 100...120 odd i think... edit : just remembered the 'last man to' bit...ignore me
It always interesting to see how many men have actually done it. Obviously there are less as the years go on, but even in the golden era, it still was a relatively rare event. Of course some had over 100+ and still do not receive a deserved shot due to discrimination of one kind or another (normally, skin colour of course).
thanks for not calling me a dick for not reading the opening post properly....you're a real gent tbooze
do boxrec count all the newspaper decison fights?....if you look at tunneys boxrec, grebs name has 57-2-2 beside it
But it wasn't a world title, and Harry lifted the middleweight laurels from Johnny Wilson 22 fights later. Scary to think he entered his fabled 1919 campaign with 120 matches already behind him.
True D, When Greb beat Tunney in May, 1922,harry won the U,S Lh title. And as you post, 22 fights later, lil ol Harry won the World Middleweight title from Johnny Wilson, Jan,1924. Harry Greb was a busy old cuss, Yessir.:good
Incredibly, the astounding Len Wickwar had accumulated a record of 333-84-42 BEFORE HE TURNED 29!!!!:scaredas::scaredas::scaredas: yet never received a title shot at any level. Without WW II getting in the way, Len may have gotten to 500 wins without getting a shot at any championship.