The records state that he successfully defended against that bum and no-hoper, Canelo I love it when you guys are hoist by your own petard
Technically the draw was a successful title defense by GGG. Any way that you retain your title it's considered a success. That's why Hopkins was rooting so hard for Canelo in the rematch so Lil G wouldn't break his record.
It's debatable. There's debate about how many title defenses Hopkins had. Did he have 19 or did he have 20? Do you include the no-contest against Robert Allen?
But if you want to use the word "Technically" then we have to talk about those Interim title defenses of GGG
This will always be debated forever. GGG fans will claim GGG had 20 including the Canelo draw. Hopkins had 20 if you include the Robert Allen no-contest. A successful defense is widely defined as retaining your title.
These are good questions where you are likely to NOT get any straight answers from anyone. For the weird reason of simply hating a fighter and not wanting to acknowledge some defenses (Which is often the case w/ detractors), or more realistically, poster ignorance (And not meaning that in a bad way, mores simply no knowing any better or having knowledge to apply). The thing about title defenses is, and this is where it get more complicated is, there's no distinguishing between overall defenses whether it's an interim title or whatever. Of course in a perfect world, it would be based on being the actual World Champion (as opposed to be just a titlist, or belt holder in a division). But we all know that's not the case. It MUST be taken in to account what belts were actually available at the time. How many belts were there when Monzon set his record? Same w/ Hopkins and anyone else. These things matter, but ultimately, the landscape of boxing and having MUCH too many belts per division has essentially made comparing # of title defenses from to, 10 years ago, to 40 years ago, rather pointless.
You make a good point about GGG's interim title fight vs Milton Nunez. Does that get counted as a defense? I don't see why it would. Isn't that essentially just GGG and Nunez fighting for a vacant title? (like Hopkins vs Mercado?) In which case it's not a defense for GGG which would give him only 18 successful defenses 19 if you include the Canelo draw. Hopkins has 19 and 20 if you include the NC. Hopkins win over Mercado doesn't get counted because they were fighting for the vacant title, after drawing their first fight for the vacant title.
But see i dont count a no contest but its officially counted as a title defense in the record books. But in all reality both having 20 defences could be a bit far fetched when u think about it
Here's the thing, if you count the NC as a title defense for Hopkins he has 20, G only had 19 even with the Canelo draw because his interim title match vs Nunez wouldn't be counted as a defense right.
