The least amount of fights? Who can lay claim to this one? Frazier barely had a filler fight his entire career. A little over 30 fights I believe and almost all of them against high level guys. Sugar Ray Leonard comes to mind too.
He sure wasn't protected on the way up, that's fair to say. But he did fight a couple of suspect challengers between Ali and Foreman. Daniels, Stander and there might have been one other, I forget. Probably he was entitled.
Are we taking entire careers here or selections of it? In the latter case, Foreman should be mentioned, fighting Frazier (top10 ATG), Norton (top30 ATG) and Ali (top2 ATG) in one and a half year. That certainly made up for the shitload of mediocre boxers he fought earlier.
McLarnin fought the following Hall of Famers: Charles Taylor Tony Canzoneri Barney Ross Lou Ambers Billy Petrolle Young Corbett III Benny Leonard Lou Brouillard Sammy Mandell Kid Kaplan Jackie Fields Pancho Villa Fidel LaBarba He fought these men a total of twenty three times in just sixty nine fights over a thirteen year career. Compare that to Marvin Hagler, who had sixty seven fights over a fourteen year career and fought just three Hall of Famers, three times in total. Intertwining with these fights were other ones against such champions or contenders as Al Singer, Joe Glick and Sammy Fuller.
Evander Holyfield deserves a mention. It's only in his last few fights where he's gone back to fight some D-level guys. From 1987 - 2004 who was the worst fighter he faced ? Probably Seamus McDonagh, undefeated and a former golden gloves winner. Another lesser fighter was Bobby Czyz, a former champ in two divisions. James Tillis, a faded former contender. Bert Cooper, and dangerous punching journeyman (and a 3rd choice substitute at that). And the rest were bona fide contenders or young up-and-comers. He's been in world class fights from his 12th fight onwards, a 15 rounder with Dwight Qawi.
Well, I'd imagine Saensak Muangsurin could be rated right up there. Although he did have dozens of kickboxing matches in Thailand before switching to boxing, the fact does remain that he won the WBC Light Welterweight Title in only his third boxing contest, and successfully defended it nine times. Aside from his final defense against Francisco Moreno (who was making his boxing debut), all of them were against noted contenders and champions. (Mamby, Kimpuani, Mike Everett, Brooks, Ishimatsu, Velasquez...) In his second match, he knocked out Lion Furuyama in seven rounds. Furuyama had 41 matches and nearly eight years of boxing experience at the time. He had gone ten rounds with Eddie Perkins, 15 with Cevantes, and another 15 with Perico Fernandez, who Muangsurin dethroned in his next bout. It's hard to identify anybody who had less sanctioned fighting experience than Jeff Chandler. With only a 1-1 amateur career behind him, he won the USBA Bantamweight Title in just his 19th bout. Benitez was 17 years old when he dethroned Cervantes in his 26th contest. If you want to skip the names of those who were quickly successful in the pro ranks, then Pete Rademacher might be a good candidate. Of course he was kayoed by Patterson in his pro debut, then by Folley in his second pro bout. That'sa lotsa experience very quickly.
Thanx for the props. I don't necessarily disagree with Jaff, but he's such an obvious choice that I wanted to take on the challenge of naming some potential alternatives.
Oscar De La Hoya has fought every big name in the business over the last 12 years or so, and he hasn't had that many fights.