What are some of the most impressive title reigns of all time?

Fifty or so contenders for the top 10 title reigns in history across all 18 weight divisions (no doubt I've missed some obvious ones).

Greatest title reigns - descending order from heavyweight to strawweight:

Jack Johnson
Jack Dempsey
Joe Louis
Rocky Marciano
Muhammad Ali
Joe Frazier
Larry Holmes
Mike Tyson
Evander Holyfield (Cruiserweight)
Oleksandr Usyk
Archie Moore
Bob Foster
Michael Spinks
Roy Jones Jnr (light heavyweight)
Joe Calzaghe
Andre Ward
Carlos Monzon
Marvin Hagler
Bernard Hopkins
Thomas Hearns (light middleweight)
Mike McCallum
Terry Norris
Sugar Ray Robinson (welterweight)
Henry Armstrong
Jose Napoles
Sugar Ray Leonard
Felix Trinidad
Antonio Cervantes
Julio Cesar Chavez (light welterweight)
Joe Gans
Benny Leonard
Ike Williams
Joe Brown
Carlos Ortiz
Roberto Duran
Flash Elorde
Alexis Arguello (Featherweight and Jnr Lightweight)
Azumah Nelson (Featherweight and Jnr Lightweight)
Floyd Mayweather Jnr (Jnr Lightweight)
George Dixon
Willie Pep
Vicente Saldivar
Salvador Sanchez
Eusebio Pedroza
Wilfredo Gomez
Manuel Ortiz
Eder Jofre
Ruben Olivares
Carlos Zarate
Jimmy Wilde
Pascual Perez
Miguel Canto
Jung Koo Chang
Michael Carbajal
Chiquita Gonzalez
Ivan Calderon
Ricardo Lopez (strawweight)

 

I missed out jnr bantamweight completely as well:
Gilberto Roman
Khaosai Galaxy

 

John L sullivan heavyweight reign.

Armstrong Welterweight reign.

Canto Flyweight reign.

Chang and Yuh light flyweight reign.

Kilbane featherweight reign.

 

Larry Holmes had a good championship run and suffered his first loss roughly a decade after turning pro. Probably one of the most under appreciated world champions in the division. Archie Moore had a phenomenal reign at light heavyweight.

 

I would love to know what the Panamanian promoters offered Buchanan. I know they were paying peanuts, which made a mockery of an actual purse bid for a title fight. I'm sure the Garden was offering a lucrative package for the fight. This much I know, the Olympic Boxing Club in California - after Duran and Rodolfo Gonzalez appeared on the same card - offered Duran and Gonzalez $100,000 apiece for a unification bout to be held in the LA Coliseum. Duran's people nixed it and offered Gonzalez $40,000 for a unification in Panama. Now, Gonzalez had just defended his title against Ruben Navarro for $43,000 and was looking at a purse of $65,000 to defend against Antonio Puddu, so money does talk. I know even Tury Pineda turned down a title fight in Panama with Duran for what they offered him. So I think Buchanan was not entirely wrong for turning down a sub-par offer. Afterall, he was a former champ. Duran's purse for his fight with Buchanan was 15% of the gate. The gate was $223,000. so Duran earned $33,000. That's not too shabby for a kid who had only fought in NY once (against a clubfighter) and really only had two good names on his record. A former jr.lightweight champ Hiroshi Kobayashi and a future champ in Ernesto Marcel, who wasn't yet known outside Panama. Conversely, Gonzalez, who won his title a couple of months later, earned $10,000 for winning the title, so I think Duran was well-paid as a title challenger. I know Buchanan retired in '75 after the Giancarlo Usai bout, and said the only way he would comeback was if Roberto Duran would honor the contract for a rematch.

 

I believe Buchanan said it was $25k.

 

Wow, talk about small potatos. Gonzalez got 45K for his rematch with Suzuki as an ex-champ. It's no wonder they finally started venturing outside the safe confines at around Duran's 7th title defense and never returned for a title fight again. Maybe it was just too much caution with Duran's management after the first DeJesus fight. I did hear something to the effect of Duran's people questioning that they were set up. I don't know, but they obviously finally saw that they had a real talent and there was only one way to make money. And it wasn't in Panama.

 

I disagree with a lot of the names mentioned as the tread is about the most impressive (and not the longest) title reign.

 

Benny Leonard’s has got to be up there. Took on all comers in a golden era and retired on top.

 

Omar Narvaez - Flyweight. Not sure how many defences but it's more than 20.

 

It was obviously cut short but Salvador Sanchez beat a host of top class names.

 

Which ones are you thinking of?

 

They offered pretty close to on par with what Duran was paid in the first fight.

Duran was going to draw the crowd in Panama, not Buchanan. And I’ve never read a word that indicates Duran was ever offered bigger money for a rematch on Ken’s turf.

 

Stiverne.

G.O.A.T!!!!!!!!!

 

In terms of non-unified or alphabet reigns (although there's no doubt he was the best in the division), Arguello's at 130 was pretty special. Escalera, who he usurped, still rates as one of the better Super-Featherweight champions, and what's really impressive about Arguello's WBC tenure is that during it he beat all of the next four guys who would hold the belt after he'd vacated it: Limon, Boza-Edwards (non-title fight, admittedly), Navarette and Chacon. Beat them all inside-schedule, too.