Heavyweight champions and their defense rates (Where does Fury stand?)

Given below is the list of heavyweight boxing champions with title defense rates. The methodology of calculating defense rate is as follows:

1. Only fights fought for a title recognized by a sanctioning body are mentioned. The first such fight happened on July 2nd, 1921.

2. The end-date is May 17, 2024, as no world title fights are scheduled until then.

2. Only fighters with three title defenses are listed. No-contests are also considered as valid defenses.

3. The time period as champion is calculated as the number of days between winning the title and when the reign ended.

4. If a champion has multiple title runs, the combined length of all reigns is counted.


Name of champion Days as champion Number of defenses Defense rate

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Primo Carnera 350 3 116.67

Joe Louis 4270 25 170.8

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Rocky Marciano 1312 6 218.67

Floyd Patterson 1765 8 220.625

Muhammad Ali 2765 20 138.25

Ernie Terrell 703 3 234.33

Joe Frazier 1715 10 171.5

George Foreman 882 4 220.5

Larry Holmes 2661 20 133.05

Mike Weaver 984 3 328

Tim Witherspoon 504 3 168

Mike Tyson 1415 11 128.64

Evander Holyfield 1594 11 144.91

Riddick Bowe 778 4 194.5

Lennox Lewis 2998 13 230.61

Michael Moorer 968 4 242

Herbie Hide 1087 4 271.75

Vitali Klitschko 2738 13 210.62

Chris Byrd 1788 6 298

Wladimir Klitschko 4382 25 175.28

John Ruiz 1396 6 232.67

Lamon Brewster 722 3 240.67

Hasim Rahman 487 3 162.33

Nikolay Valuev 919 6 153.17

David Haye 603 3 201

Deontay Wilder 1863 11 169.36

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Joseph Parker 477 3 159

Anthony Joshua 1810 9 201.11

 

Ezzard Charles has the best rate at just 84 days per defense. The first champion listed - Jack Dempsey has the worst rate at 656.33 days.

If the proposed fight between Usyk and Fury gets postponed again, Fury will break Dempsey's record for the worst defense rate.

 

I stopped his reign on April 28th 1967 when he was stripped of his boxing license. A boxer cannot defend his title if his license is taken away from him.

 

Brian Nielsen (IBO) and Alexander Povetkin (WBA regular) held minor titles at the rate of 250.6 and 192.75 days respectively. Ruslan Chagaev is a special case. He had one major (WBA 'super') and one minor (WBA regular) reign combining three defenses at 469.33 days per defense. If included, this becomes the third worst ever. Ironically, he never lost either belt in the ring.

 

The rot began in the 1980s when the division was in shambles and the titles were splintered. There were two titles at first and then three of them with the introduction of the IBF strap. You won't see it in the list because barring Holmes, Weaver, Witherspoon, and Tyson, nobody defended their titles more than twice. The 2000s have a similar problem with four tiles especially after WBO started gaining traction, but unlike the boxers of the 80s, some of them did manage to defend their titles three or more times. In both decades, the WBA was the main culprit.