I was thinking about Alexis Arguello and Roberto Duran and was struck by the way they didn’t automatically get title shots at higher weight classes after being recognized world champions in another weight class. Arguello was featherweight champ from 1974 to 1976 but didn’t get his crack at the super featherweight title till 1978. In 1980, he had to beat Cornelius Boza-Edwards and Jose Luis Ramirez before facing Jim Watt for the lightweight crown. Duran was light champ for 5 and a half years and undisputed champ in 1978 but didn’t get a crack at the welter title for over two and a half years after his last lightweight title fight and had to beat former welter champ Carlos Palomino and tough contenders like Monroe Brooks and Jimmy Heair to get his shot. He then faces Sugar Ray Leonard for the title. So can you think of recent fighters who were already established world champions who genuinely had to work their way to a title shot in a higher weight class?
Holyfield.. after beating journeyman James Tillis and former world champ Pinklon Thomas he went through the following fighters ranked in the top 10 - Michael Dokes (11 fight winning streak), Adilson Rodriguez (18 fight winning streak), Alex Stewart (24 fight winning streak) and Seamus McDonagh (7 fight winning streak).
Robinson immediately comes to mind. He had left the greatest streak of terror the Welterweight division had ever seen behind him, and he had already beaten his fair share of top Middleweights like LaMotta, Abrams, Dellicurti and Balloise by the time he permanently left 147, yet he still had to destroy Robert Villemain, Jose Basora and Bobo Olson to get his shot at LaMotta, despite having already proven his worth against him several times.
Roman Gonzalez comes to mind. He was an established WBA light flyweight champion and took almost 2 years to get a shot at Akira Yaegashi for the WBC and The Ring Flyweight title. Juan Francisco Estrada was also a Flyweight champ and had to work his way into getting a title shot for Srisaket Sor Rungvisai's Super Flyweight title (who had just beaten Chocolatito twice).
