Joe Louis (25)
Bob Foster (14)
Sven Ottke (17)
Henry Armstrong (18)
Joe Gans (14)
Brian Mitchell (13)
Abe Atell (18)
Khaosai Galaxy (19)
Jung Koo Chang (15)
anymore..
sorry if this thread has been posted multiple times already..
Julio Cesar Chavez had somewhere around thirty, I think. Given you listed Sven Ottke & Brian Mitchell, I'm surprised you left off Bernard Hopkins, whose twenty defenses at Middleweight is the division record. Marvin Hagler &, before him, Carlos Monzon also made more than ten defenses of the same title. Monzon was the record-holder before Hopkins, with fourteen, while Hagler made ten or twelve I think --- going from memory there.
Roberto Duran must've made something like fourteen or fifteen defenses at 135lbs.
Don't know if you're being inclusive of multiple reigns or not, but if you are, Muhammad Ali had nearly twenty, all-up. Tommy Burns had a bunch --- around thirteen or fourteen, & I think Ezzard Charles may've cracked ten. Different people count Larry Holmes champ at different times, but any way you slice it on his ascendancy of the division, he surpassed ten defenses, doubtless.
sg1985 wrote:Are we talking in a row without losing any? Lennox Lewis made over 10 easily, probably about 15 successful, but he lost twice during that.
Depends also on the belt.
If it's any old belt, it kind of loses meaning. Lewis held significant belts prior to beating Briggs, but until he won that fight, he wasn't the real champ.
Mexicans/Mexican-Americans who have had 10 or more successful title defenses:
julio cesar chavez-27
ricardo "finito" lopez-22
manuel ortiz-19
oscar de la hoya-17
marco antonio barrera-16
orlando canizales-16
miguel canto-16
johnny tapia-14
erik morales-14
chiquita gonzalez-13
fernando montiel-12
michael carbajal-12
daniel zaragoza-11
genaro hernandez-11
pipino cuevas-11
gilberto roman-11
oscar larios-11
miguel angel gonzales-10
carlos zarate-10
edgar sosa-10
sg1985 wrote:Are we talking in a row without losing any? Lennox Lewis made over 10 easily, probably about 15 successful, but he lost twice during that.
Depends also on the belt.
If it's any old belt, it kind of loses meaning. Lewis held significant belts prior to beating Briggs, but until he won that fight, he wasn't the real champ.
Wasn't he defending against Briggs? I think he only won the WBC until he beat Holyfield.
Briggs was the defending champion --- though Lewis probably had some belt going in. It was Briggs who was the actual official division ruler, though.
as great a fighter as ruben olivares was, he was only able to muste up four successful world title defenses in his career. each one of his title reigns at bantamweight and featherweight were short lived. i do know one thing though, the guy was one of the top three bantamweights in history! when lost his featherweight title fight against alexis arguello in 1974, it was an absolute classic. when olivares got caught by a devastating left hook where it essentially ended the fight, he was on the verge of giving alexis a KO loss. at the time of this loss, he was 76-4 69 KO's. definitely a great p4p all-timer!
sg1985 wrote:
Wasn't he defending against Briggs? I think he only won the WBC until he beat Holyfield.
Briggs was the defending champion --- though Lewis probably had some belt going in. It was Briggs who was the actual official division ruler, though.
I just looked it up on here, It was for the WBC, which Lewis held and had been defending in his previous fights and is a belt Shannon Briggs never won.
He's talking about the lineal title that Moorer won from Holyfield and Foreman won from Moorer, then George got stripped for fighting Axl Shulz of one strap and I think he was stripped of the other because he didn't rematch him.
Goodnight, Irene wrote:^^^Surprised you didn't know that already, SG.
Briggs = Champion
Lewis = Challenger
I didn't know Briggs was the Lineal champ, still though, it's an intangible title, unlike the Wbc strap. I assumed he meant belt defences. So, Lewis retired still Lineal champ, how does it get decided who is the next one? Is it when the consensus 1 & 2 fight each other?
There is no exact science to it and with the titles so fragmented at this juncture lineal has become less and less significant imo. Zsolt Erdei is the lineal Light Heavyweight champion, that and a quarter will get you a nickel.
The most absurd thing for me is when people called casamayor the Lightweight champion for winning a Jr Welterweight fight.
I do, but after he beat Juan Diaz is where I would have staked the claim. I didn't consider Casamayor the champion. In the madness of the alphabet era, you really just have to make your own decisions for who to recognize as there are rarely cut and dry moments.
But I must insist that title fights take place in the weight class to match the belt.