I have often wondered the same thing. But the best I could come up with were guys who had a lot of early losses in their career but improved, like a Freddy Pendelton, or Saoul Mamby, or a guy like Leon Spinks, who won his title in his 8th fight and his career went into decline right after. I believe his final record was like 26-17 with few draws. It is a good question I am sure someone on the forum will come up with an answer to.
Freddie Pendleton won the IBF lightweight strap from Tracy Spann when he was 32-17-4 Fought just about everybody: Pernell Whitaker, Felix Trinidad, Frankie Randall, Roger Mayweather, Livingstone Bramble (twice), Jorge Paez, Rafael Ruelas, and even way past his best he was in with Ricky Hatton, Vince Phillips, and Ben Tackie.
Some of the past holders of the coloured title claims have had 50/50 type records but it is mainly due to the incompletenes of their records.
The "cheese champion",middleweight Al McCoy had a lot of losses. Boxrec gives his record as 71-47-33. Other champs with less than stellar records: LHW: Bob Olin MW: Babe Risko WW: Freddie Cochrane, Virgil Akins LW: Jimmy Goodrich But it should be remembered that these guys fought in eras when fighters fought often and weren't as protected as in our days.
Kelvin Seabrooks was a little over .500 when he won the IBF Bantamweight title. He defended it 3 times before losing it to Orlando Canizales. He had 2 tough fights with Canizales.
The late Steve Little was 21-13-2 when he upset Michael Nunn for the WBA Supermiddleweight title finally retiring with a 25-17-3 record.
