Which world champ started his pro career with the longest...

streak of consecutive fights, without a single ko (ko, tko, rtd) defeat?

 

So we're off to a flying start with Monzon, who was without ko defeats in his first 100 fights - which, of course, was his entire career.

 

According to BoxRec, Jones had 174 fights without ever getting ko'd.

Incidentally, Tony Canzoneri had 175 fights and was only ko'd in the last one - so he, too, started with 174 fights, without ko defeats.

This means, that Jones and Canzoneri are tied for 3rd place in this category. So who can name the first two on this particular list?

 

Yes, Stribling had way more than 200 fights before losing his only fight by ko against Schmeling.

However, he was never a world champion, so can't be considered for this question.

 

You're right, that sounds a little strange, as those numbers added up only come to 156. That's because the 3 fights he had that ended in a "NC" aren't counted in his W-L-D record.

Also the ND fights aren't included in that record - but just below, at the top of the list of his fights, the total number of fights is listed. In the case of Jones, 174.

In the case of someone like Greb it looks really weird, when BoxRec lists his record as 108-8-3... but of course he fought a ****load of ND bouts, for a real total of almost 300 fights!

 

Great find!

Now we just need to name #1 on the list - the champ who was ko'd for the first time, in his 207th fight!

Clue: We're looking for a HOFer, whose first ko defeat came at the hands of another HOFer.