Charles Martin: The Worst HW Champ Since...?

People used to say John Ruiz but Ruiz has a much superior record and there are definitely worse examples. Maybe Leon Spinks or Bruce Seldon but they're better than Martin imo. Martin didn't even win the belt, so he's up there. Probably the worst heavyweight champion in history

 

To be fair he was winning before the injury. Glazkov was one of those guys who did just enough to lose and for some reason the judges always bailed him out. A lot of us were very disappointed in Czar.

Worst since Maskaev, who had an entire career based around having Rahmen's number.

 

Ruiz's record is only "superior" if you ignore what actually happened in his fights.

Ruiz never legitimately "won" a fight against a decent opponent without holding excessively; faking "low blows" like he did against Jimmy Thunder to get a crucial point deduction, Holyfield in their second fight to avoid being counted out (as should have happened) and against Kirk Johnson to get a thoroughly bogus DQ.; or without getting some help from Don King's judges, such as the outrageous gift decision he received against Golota in a fight where he was outlanded, knocked down twice and got another point deducted, and yet somehow got the nod!!

Without Don King, Ruiz is a regional beltholder (NABF, USBA, etc.) - at best -who would be onky known for being starched by David Tua in 19 seconds.

Charles Martin is horrible no question. He's in the conversation for WOAT for sure. But so is Ruiz, and he's worse in view because of the chicanery that made his career possible. Ruiz was the poster boy for boxing corruption, a shameful cheater who deserves to be remembered as exactly that and nothing more.

 

Far from the worst. He would have had his way with Francois Botha and Tommy Morrison, pretty sure there are more phonies out there that he would have defeated, he would for damn sure have whooped the worst version of W Klit, a fight between Martin and Shannon B would have been hard to call. Anyways the hate against this man is uncalled for, he's an athlete and he has done his best, what more can anyone ask for?

 

It's a tossup between Prince Chuckles and Scuba Seldon

 

Morrison would trash Charles Martin. Botha would probably school him too

 

He does not beat tommy Morrison lol
He's an absolute bum

 

W P.

 

Funny thing is, there's a good chance he's worse than the WBA jokes too...

 

Stiverne was worse. I don't consider Martin or Stiverne real champs but Martin was more deserving than Stiverne. He deserves that much.

I'm not sure if you consider interim belts real but Wardley v Huni will be the least credible title match since this time.

 

Imagine getting a title shot and its a rematch of your only decent win? It was an utter embarassment.

Stiverne ending Wilders 32 fight KO streak was honestly more embarassing for Wilder then a feather to put in Stivernes cap. The man never proved he was a top fighter in my book. And its hard to find other champions like that in the annuals of boxing. I did a post better detailing my argument for this in the past. With Charles Martin you can at least understand why he got that oppurtunity. With Stiverne I will be eternally scratching my head.

 

Hot take: Shannon Briggs drags the overall quality of lineal HW champs down more than Martin drags the overall quality of HW titlists period down.