Any other good fighters besides Matthew Saad Muhammed and Hopkins

Mike Weaver started his career 1-3 and then 6-6. Thats a good modern example.

Manny Pacquiao lost in fight 12.

Earlier theres quite a lot of them. Losing to a nobody early on USED to be normal. Nowadays it doesn't happen because it sets your career back years because having an 0 is an expectation now. In the past having an 0 was not an expectation.

 

Srisaket Sor Rungvisai is probably one of the best examples of this. Didn't win any of his first 4 fights then went on to defeat two of the best little men of all time in Chocolatito Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada.
Johnny Nelson lost his first 3.
Donaire lost his second pro fight.
Tevin Farmer lost his debut and a couple other fights early in his career but went on to make a solid name for himself as a champ at 130.
Juan Manuel Marquez lost his debut as well, as did his brother Rafael.
I think this thread from BoxRec has a lot of good examples too btw: https://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=254536
Boxing News also had an article from earlier this year about what it feels like to lose your debut which I'll need to look for.

 

Marvin Hagler.

 

Henry Armstrong was KO'd in his pro debut.
Billy Conn lost several fights in his 1st couple years as a pro, including a stoppage loss.
Sandy Saddler was KO'd in his 2nd pro fight.

 

Dick Tiger was 14-7 at one point early in his career before being an atg middleweight champ and then winning the light-heavyweight title.

 

The problem with this question is that it's being served up through the modern boxing lens, which mandates that all prospects be spoon-fed opponents in order to protect that apparently all-important zero on their record. That's not how it used to be done, and fighters were better for it back then.

A loss, or two or three or however many, can teach you a lot provided you're good enough and smart enough to learn from them and apply what you learned going forward. Today's fighters who are guided along the easy path don't have to summon much through adversity and are lesser fighters because of it.

To answer the question, many MANY untold numbers of truly great fighters had spotty early records for a number of reasons. Doesn't make them any less great because of it. In many cases, it makes them even better than some ESPN or TVKO undercard king who is dancing on a house of cards.

 

Alexis Arguello was 3-2 in his first 5 professional fights never heard of any of the 2 opponents he lost to.

 

I think somebody already mentioned it Armstrong was knocked out in his first fight, but he went on to become a legend, A top 10 all-time great. I really wish young fighters would test themselves more like in the past.

 

I believe Esubio Pedroza had 3 losses in his
first 14-15 fights, including a ko loss to hard
punching Zamora.
Then he gained a few pounds and went on
to an ATG career.
Jeff Chandler's very 1st fight was a draw.

 

Victor Galindez was 11-6-3 in his first 20 fights before going 42-0-1 between Jan 1972 and losing his light heavy title against Mike Rossman in Sep 1978. To put that run into perspective, Roberto Duran went 38-1 during that same time period that encapsulated his entire world lightweight title reign.

 

Bob Foster dropped a few fighting up a weight before he found his mojo.

Limon didn't have a sparkling early record, and was stopped a few times before he broke out.

 

Preach it Sal!

 

Beat me to Armstrong. Good shout out.

Wasn't Saddler's only stoppage loss very, very early in his career when he was a complete amateur, akin to Armstrong?

 

And went 2-1 vs. Jorge Ahumada during that rough start to boot. Victor Emilio learned to swim in the deep end of the pool.

Jose ‘Pipino’ Cuevas started 7-5, turning pro at 15, before he started breaking eye sockets and jaws with that jammer of a left hook.