There have been countless world champions, but precious few who took their titles around the world to defend them. So who are the true world champs who spanned the globe while taking on title challengers? Figured it might make an interesting topic. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s limit it to title defenses (successful or otherwise) in different countries. No country counts twice. Also winning a title in a country isn’t a defense, so cancel those from your lists. I’m counting Puerto Rico as a country for this discussion but if you prefer to think of a title fight there as taking place on U.S. soil, subtract accordingly. Here are a few I found (please correct me if I overcounted someone or missed a country): Muhammad Ali is the first name that comes to mind. He defended his title during his reigns in even different countries by my count. A true citizen of the world who was happy to travel with his belt. Brian Mitchell, the splendid South African junior lightweight champ, fought a dozen fights in six countries as champion with his belt on the line. The WBA blocked title fights in his native country after he won the title, so he took it around the world. Eusebio Pedroza fought in nine different countries as featherweight champ by my count, making him the No. 1 road warrior of guys I thought of and looked up. True globetrotter. Special mention to George Foreman with four, with his old man George era finally giving him a title fight on home soil in the U.S. as champion. He fought in three different countries as champion during his first reign, and also won it in another, Jamaica (which doesn’t count but is still interesting that he had zero title fights in his own country until winning the title a second time in his 40s). Does anyone top Pedroza? Who are some others who deserve mention in his category?
Laciar defended in 7 or 8 countries iirc. Jofre in about 6, and the same for Galindez and Canto I reckon. Napoles in about 5. This is without double checking their records though so I could be slightly mistaken. Chris John threw in a few overseas defences in his long mickey mouse reign. Ricardo Lopez too. They both fought a lot in the US, Mexico and Indonesia though.
