Greatest Ever To Lose a Lot

Dan Creedon seems to have been very good, but after a ton of late career losses his final (known) record was
39-21-10

Billy McCarthy is another one, he challenged Dempsey for the middleweight title, and had a win over Jim Hall. He seems to have had a very good reputation, though great may be a bit of a stretch, but his final record was 21-19-12

 

I'm not sure picking up a belt is truely greatness per se though.

 

A lot of those guys have incomplete records on boxrec.

 

The facts are a tricky matter Al-Ghul.

 

No, of course not... my post was merely a reply to Al-Ghul (#15)

 

No. I remember reading a Zivic article in which he mentioned rules for how to get away with fouling. The first was always know where the ref was so when you thumbed, or used the laces, or butted, he couldn't see it. Same with hitting low. Also, always follow up a foul with a punch to cover the foul.

 

To be such a master of dirty tactics..a real artist of fighting dirty, as Zivic was, and yet never to have lost by a dq tells you just how good at it he was.

 

If we are talking just numbers and challengers, then the very sad case of Howard Clarke deserves mention. Upsetting Jason Papillion meant journeyman Clarke's record stood at 26-10-2, and a shot at Fernando Vargas was his reward.

Clarke lost in four, and then over the next eight years went 1-68 to finish his career 27-79-2, and sadly is now paying the price for his ring wars.

 

CBZ Has McCoy's last fight as Aug 4th 1916
BoxRec Has it as 20th Jan1912 neither have an Everett Strong listed on McCoy's record,produce your source for this. No Decisions mean exactly that No Decision! You poor lost soul!

During his interview with Peter Heller for" In This Corner," he mentions he was never disqualified.

 

In terms of most losses for a great fighter, Zivic was the first guy I thought of too.

Wow, look at that - we actually agreed on something!

 

Holyfield is an example of a great fighter that hung around too long ...he only had 3 losses when he fought Lennox Lewis

 

Rocky Lockridge ...although a lot of his losses were controversial

 

Sometimes the losses come right at the end of a career so skew the overall record.

Look at Kid Gavilan. Up to March 1954, he had a very good win-loss record (98-13-4). By the end of his career, in June 1958, he had 108 wins against 30 losses - in his last 28 fights he had only 10 wins, 1 draw and 17 defeats!

 

Tony Zale is another. He had a career record of 67-18-2

Interestingly, most of his defeats came earlier in his career. At one point he went on a 20 fight stretch of only 9 wins, 1 draw and 10 defeats. He later went 32-2, with one of those defeats against Billy Conn at light-heavyweight.

I love analysing fighters records to see these kid of anomalies - it's much more revealing than looking at the overall won-loss record and then making a flat judgement. God bless Boxrec!

 

Emmanuel Augustus is worth a mention, also Micky Ward while i'm at it.