Fighters who didn’t win a world title until they moved up.

Jose Napoles started at 135 and didn't become champion until he went up to 147.

 

Ezzard Charles started at MW but never won a title until HW

 

Ceferino Garcia lost 2 tries for the WW title, then moved up & bombed out Fred Apostoli for a piece of the MW title.

Archie Moore, Billy Conn, & Ezzard Charles all started as MWs but didn't win titles until they moved up to either LHW or (in Charles' case) HW.

 

Eusebio Pedroza started at Bantamweigh and challenged Zamora for the Bantamweight weight title and got KO'ed in 2 rounds.

Pedroza then moved up to Featherweight and of course started his long reign as Featherweight champion and the rest is history.

 

Carlos Ortiz moved up & won the jr. WW title before dropping back down to win the LW title.

I believe Wilfredo Gomez was a ranked BW before jumping up to win the jr. FW title & Aaron Pryor was a ranked LW before jumping up to win the jr. WW title.

 

Jimmy McLarnin, Andre Ward, Georges Carpentier, Harry Greb, George Lavigne, and many other old-timers who lacked amateur careers.

 

Glen Johnson lost at 160 to BHOP and at 168 to Ottke before winning a world title at 175 against Tarver.

 

Jimmy Ellis, Georges Carpentier, Ralph Dupas, Jimmy Braddock, Ceferino Garcia, Denny Moyer.

 

Hundreds. When you've got names such as SRR, Duran, Chavez, Moore, Charles, Langford, Arguello, Gans, Leonard, Pep and co just at the top end you know the list is gonna be loooooooong.

 

Yes, that's big portion of all champions. Maybe the interesting question is here is who won his first title the highest above his original weight?

Guillermo Jones had to move up quite a few division before winning a belt. He started out as a Welterweight, challanged for a title twice at Super Welterweight - but only won a title at Cruiserweight.

 

Evander Holyfield started at LHW, but won his 1st title at CW.

Canelo Alvarez started at WW, but won his 1st title at JMW.

 

Pryor could have stayed at 135 his whole career but moved to 140 because Cervantes gave him a shot when none of the lightweight champs would.

 

This gets bandied about but simply isn't true.

 

Braddock.