Champs That Had Fantastic Number Of Successful Title Fights..?

Ali had a good number of defences - some gifts, bad fights overall and lacklustre performances, but he's up there for HWs.

Yuck - similar to Ali and The Mallard in who was faced as an opponent sometimes, but the real original rudeboi with his mudda's tongue, Kwis Swimpwee Da Bwest Eubank Snr. had a good amount of defences.

 

Louis because if not for WW2 he could have absolutley shattered every numerical defense or big win record whereas guys like Ali, Wlad and Holmes took till their late 30s to get there. Louis is the only boxer to attain GOAT status by 25.

Louis also won 5 15 rounders before becoming champ not to mention a win against Jack Sharkey. Despite the Schmeling loss his pre title run is better than most champions title reigns. Max Baer, Carnera, Sharkey, Uzcudin, Pastor, Retzlaff, Al Ettore. Only Pastor went the distance.

Without WW2 we could be looking at something like 50 or 60 wins over contenders.

 

Yeah, he had 19 defences overall. 9 in his first reign and 10 in his second reign.

 

Some double figures legends-
Brian Mitchell
Joe Brown
Orlando Canizales
Antonio Cervantes

 

The "Tour De Farce" years.

 

To be fair, in first reign Ali was an active champion and did travel outside of USA to defend the belt.

He could've easily racked up about 4 - 6 defences per year

Was a very active champ - title fights, in the gym and a few exhibitions in his first reign.

Could've reasonably held the title until 1974 ish time had it not been for the exile, retiring as the champion, likely overtaking Louis' defence record. I definitely believe he would've fitted anywhere from 8 - 12 defences from 1967 - 1970.

 

The ITV era - the good old days, before Channel 5 and late Friday night 'entertainment'.

 

He was never going to beat Frazier at the first time of asking, especially as a by-then complacent incumbent.

 

He would have likely faced Frazier in late 1968/1969 and he would have not had the exile or had Frazier as worked up for the fight after Frazier championing him in exile.

I happen to think that Ali, not removed from the ring, who looked as sharp as ever going into exile, would have been too much for the Frazier of 1968/1969; especially when I think of how much Joe was up for the fight and the likely lack of animosity on Joe's side towards Ali had the exile not happened, thus removing the dynamic between them going into the FOTC.

 

Fair point about the animosity. I would counter by saying even with the exile, Ali under-estimated Frazier & flatly did not believe he was that good. Without the exile he’d have even more reason to be over-confident.

 

Calzaghe and Ottke.

Pacquiao too but a lot of the title fights over 130 were due to politics and not beating genuinely respected champions.

 

I would say Ezzard Charles defending the heavyweight title 8 times successfully in the short span he had the title was commendable. He wasn't a spectacular performer he just knew how to win boxing matches.

 

He wasn't lighting the world on fire, but Gianfranco Rosi made 11 defenses of the IBF Jr middle title in the 90s from 89-94.

Ottke had a ridiculous amount of defenses as well (20?)

 

Felix Trinidad actually had 20 successful title fights. 16 wins and 13 knockouts at 147, 3 wins 2 ko's at 154 and 1 win 1 ko at 160.