Most shameless title defences of all time

Roy Jones defending against an absolutely hapless, blown-up (roided-up) lightweight guido in Pazienza was, while fun to watch, laughable to be considered a title defense.

 

Pedro, yes I am. Call it personal if you will, but i came up in an era where the world title was something special and the man fighting for that title should be something special too. It's just me. I don't believe in gimme's. And to the letter of the OP, a title defense against an ex-light heavyweight contender who lost 3 out of his last 4 was shameless.

 

[QUOTE Quality post from a quality poster.

 

I think Pedro and Scartissue are propagating different viewpoints, that, in the main, don't contradict one another.

Scartissue has cited Joe Louis's defence against Al McCoy in response to the OP. Whilst I think there are better/more extreme examples in history of "shameless" title defences, I agree that this was a weak defence.

Pedro is arguing that Joe Louis defences on the whole weren't weak, that he defended against his number 1 contender the year he defended against McCoy and so, active as Louis was in defending his title around this time, we can forgive a weak defence in addition to regularly, comparatively speaking, defending against the best contenders. I agree with this viewpoint, too.

 

So how do you go from "the world title was something special" to "a single defense over Franklin trumps two defenses against Conn and Nova"?
Isn't defending against the two leading contenders the best way to honor the title?

 

I never said anything about Conn and Nova. They were good defenses. I was talking about Al McCoy being a shameless defense.

 

Now I'm getting your argument. You're saying that Louis should have beaten Franklin on top of Nova and Conn within the year. Now this is where I ask you to name the champ who beat two number 1s and a number 2 contender in that proximity.

 

Let's pivot for a moment and talk about the great Henry Armstrong. He made an extraordinary 20 title defenses at welterweight. But were they? I count 4 that were deserving of a title shot at 147. Would anyone disagree?

 

Fighting Harada. Perhaps not with the same rapidity of Louis but put his title on the line every time against a top dog with no gimmes involved in Jofre, Rudkin, Medel, Caraballo and Rose (Rose was a sub for #1 Jesus Pimental). It can be done. But I digress from the OP. The question was a shameless defense and I named McCoy. I think he was the poorest and least deserving of Louis' defenses. I could have mentioned others but didn't. For instance, the media at the time said Johnny Paychek was the worst and least deserving. It's up to the individual.

 

Leonard vs Bonds
Mayweather vs Berto.

 

Who would you have rather had Michael defend against at that time at 175? The division had been pretty well cleaned out, and the level of physical conditioning he'd achieved was ridiculous.

 

Not too long back I was looking for a good Sot Chitalda fight and I alighted on a title defense of his against a kid named Hideaki Kamishiro. The kid started nice and I gave him the first round, but then Sot revved up the engine and beat on the kid, cutting him over both eyes before he was retired around the 8th. I was impressed enough with the kid's heart to look him up to see how he made out in his career, but that was his last fight. Yep, all 8 of them. The WBC OK'd a 7-0 novice for a title shot against a dominant champ like Sot. And the thumping he received clearly discouraged him enough to find another profession. The ruination of a good prospect. The WBC should have hung their heads in shame.

 

Roman was ranked? Thought you didn’t play by the alphabets. He was a classic Alphabet contender.

 

Frazier - Zyglewicz

 

William Joppy defending against a portly 47 year old Roberto Duran soley for his name.

Bernard Hopkins defending against Morrade Hakkar - I don't believe I've ever looked at a fighter's record and actually said, there is absolutely no recognizable names. Well this is it. Outside of Hopkins, of course, there is not one name on his ledger that I ever heard of.