The worst fighters to get title shots? past or present

Are you casting doubt on the ability of the great John Mensah Kpalongo, arguably one of the best boxers ever to come out of Togo in the bantamweight division in the 1970s and having 5 fights and fighting for a title in early 1979? Because I can't think of anyone who matches that description and was any better!

[url]http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=155670&cat=boxer[/url]

 

locket could bang which gives him a chance against anyone

i remember a journeyman from england called howard clarke geting a shot at fernando vargas

chuck wepner springs to mind

jesse ferguson against bowe is another as you said

some of what they fed jones jnr was an insult to mediocre. vinny paz springs to mind

what about that guy naz flatteted in seconds on the night of bruno v tyson 2. [url]Said Lawal[/url] his name was i think

 

While Fergusson was a journeyman, and we all knew he didn't have a shot in hell with Bowe, he did legitimately earn his shot by upsetting a top rated fighter. Can't really knock a guy who does that. Many title challengers didn't even do that much.

 

Last time I looked at that record, it only had 3 fights before he fought Zarate.

We're finding out more and more about him everyday.

 

Don't know if they've already been mentioned but Pete Rademacher was debuting fighter when Patterson gave him a shot. He never materialized into anything after that. Jack Roper, with 41 career losses was probably a good candidate to.

 

To be fair to Roper, he was coming off a decent string of wins into the Louis fight and troubled him for a minute or two until getting knocked out. He then scored somewhat of an upset win over the man in my avatar, Gunnar Bärlund.

I still have no idea what Harry Thomas had done to warrant a title shot against Louis. I guess it was his two "huge" wins over Unknown Winston (a boxer fitting of his name) that solidified him as a contender.

 

Would Leon Spinks be included here?

 

I would say that he qualifies despite winning the title. A draw with LeDoux and a close decision win over an undefeated nobody Righetti shouldn't get anyone near a title shot.

Ali simply wanted to beat another Olympic gold medalist but the plan back-fired.

 

Jeffries fighting Jack Monroe ...
Spinks defending title (heavyweight) against that Swede stiff (name forgotten) prior to Cooney ..

 

Jean-Pierre Coopman and Scott Frank are two who come to mind.

 

Stefan Tangstead. I agree. He was terrible.

 

Fair enough,

I suppose Roper did manage to get some quality wins and fought in some wars with good fighters. It was just hard for me to get past the site of 41 career losses...

 

Can't disagree with that. When it comes to having the most losses, Roper is probably up there (maybe even number 1) as far as title challengers go.

He was still a rather terrible challenger but I wanted to point out an even worse one for Louis (who hadn't been mentioned yet), although Harry's record didn't look as bad on paper. He simply hadn't beaten anybody.

 

they fed TITO some tomato cans in his welterweight days remember that zulu fella he fought

well he did have to really earn his bones in the early days of his reign. campas, carr, blocker where real quality