Curious if anyone has the depth of knowledge to answer this one. I myself have no idea. What title has changed hands on an initial defense the most consecutive times? For purposes of this discussion: 1) Only the ‘major’ title belts shall be considered: WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO … plus any truly recognized champion at whatever weight class before those titles came into being. If there’s a universally or generally recognized champ and someone else stakes a claim as the ‘other’ champ in the 1930s, only the universally recognized championship matters. No ‘recognized by Arizona and Utah’ type situations. 2) No fights for vacant titles can be considered here. So, for instance, the Ken Norton-Jimmy Young fight wouldn’t count as the start of such because no belt ‘changed hands’ as it was vacant, but a series in this exercise could start with Norton-Holmes (had Holmes lost his first defense and so on). 3) List the version of title, weight class and then each champion who knocked off the previous guy in a first defense (as well as what years it spanned), like this: WBC lightweight title (1979-81): John Doe beat Fred Smith (c) James Williams beat Jon Doe (c) Etc. My guess is it will end up being maybe three such occurrences tops but I’m interested to see some answers.
The WBC flyweight title, which had stayed with one man for over four years not so long before, changed hands in seven consecutive fights from 1981-1984. It started with Prudencio Cardona knocking out Antonio Avelar in Avelar's second defense. Then: Freddy Castillo UD15 Cardona Eleoncio Mercedes SD15 Castillo Charlie Magri TKO7 Mercedes Frank Cedeño TKO6 Magri Koji Kobayashi TKO2 Cedeño Gabriel Bernal KO2 Kobayashi Bernal retained his title against Antoine Montero before losing it in his second defense. EDIT: I had it as eight consecutive fights, but I forgot that Avelar had a successful defense. My mistake.
The IBF Junior Middleweight title from 2009 through 2017. Cory Spinks won the belt for a 2nd time in 09 after Verno Phillips vacated then he lost to k9 in an upset. Cornelius Bundrage held the belt hostage for 2 and a half years with two defenses then lost to Ishe Smith. Ishe Smith held the belt for a couple months before losing to Carlos Molina. Carlos Molina then lost to an ancient Bundrage in his first defense. A 40 year old Bundrage then lost to Jermall Charlo in his first defense. Jermall Charlo defends the IBF strap 3 times before the title became vacant in 2017.
One of my favorite hot potatoe titles, the WBC Super middle title in the mid 90s to early 2000s Nigel Benn starts out 96 as champion Thulani Malinga beats benn in march 96 Vincenzo Nardiello beats Malinga 4 months later in July 96 Robin Reid beats Malinga in December 96, making him the 4th person to hold this title in 96 alone with no one defending successfully Reid looks poised for a long reign, gets in 3 defenses but drops the title in December 97 to Malinga (2nd reign) Richie Woodhall beats Malinga 3 months later (mar 98), makes 2 defenses before dropping the title to Markus Beyer in Oct 99. Beyer makes 1 defense before dropping the title in may 2000 to Glen Cayley Catley drops the title in sep 2000 to ancient Dingaan Thobela Thobela ends up with a 3 month reign and drops the title to Dave Hilton in December 2000 Hilton loses the title in July 2001 to Eric Luca Lucas holds on for 3 defenses before dropping it back to former champ Markus Beyer in 2003 So 96 Benn Malinga Nardiello Reid 97 Malinga (2) 98 Woodhall 99 Beyer 2000 Cayley Thobela Hilton 2001 Eric Lucas 2003 Markus Beyer (2)
There was a run of first title defence losses involving Sugar Ray Robinson and the Middleweight title in the 1950s. Robinson drops the title to Fullmer, then four consecutive first title defence losses: Fullmer loses to Robinson loses to Basilio loses to Robinson loses to Pender
