Last American Fighter/Champion with 100 Career Fights?

[mjaco]

I was just idly wondering who the last boxer from the U.S. to reach 100 career fights was. The most recent name I came up with from a little research was Marty Jakubowski. But it got me to wondering who would have been the last American to have won a world championship at some point and to have reached 100 career fights?

If you want to count Emile Griffith, from the U.S. Virgin Islands, he hit a hundred but that was back in 1975. Not counting him, the most recent I could find is Denny Moyer who hit 100 around 1971 I think. Can anyone find somebody more recent?

[oogiebe]

Toney must've been close.

[wouter]

Harold Brazier won a WAA belt, but that's stretching it. I thought Buck Smith might have picked up some obscure belt along the way too, but he apparently didn't.

[Petu v.d. Pajm]

Yeah, seems like Griffith is the correct answer amongst the ones with a legit world title. Ralph Dupas is a fresher titlist than Denny Moyer (took a title from Moyer), but he both reached a century-mark and retired earlier than Moyer.

In addition to Brazier, also Rob Bleakley & Jerry "Wimpy" Halstead held the WAA title but that's stretching it way too thin.

[mjaco]

So Griffith or Moyer, depending on whether you count the U.S. Virgin Islands in this context. That's a drought of at least 45 years. I guess the next obvious question is, will we ever see a world champion from the U.S. reach 100 fights again?

[Petu v.d. Pajm]

Griffith was pretty much an American fighter no matter how you count it... He may have been born in Virgin Islands, but as far as I know he picked up boxing after arrving in New York. This is different from Livingstone Bramble or Julian Jackson who learned their trade in Virgin Islands. Those two are V.I. boxers, Emile was an American boxer born in V.I.

About the next one - chances are slim. It would take a lively, low-key club scene where somone would be fighting 15-20 easy fights annually. Such a scene doesn't exist anywhere in USA right now. There is no one with even 50 fights in BoxRec P4P Top 200 US fighters right now. Not even 50 fights! So breaking 100 looks truly unlikely for quite a while.

[mjaco]

Griffith was pretty much an American fighter no matter how you count it... He may have been born in Virgin Islands, but as far as I know he picked up boxing after arrving in New York. This is different from Livingstone Bramble or Julian Jackson who learned their trade in Virgin Islands. Those two are V.I. boxers, Emile was an American boxer born in V.I.

About the next one - chances are slim. It would take a lively, low-key club scene where somone would be fighting 15-20 easy fights annually. Such a scene doesn't exist anywhere in USA right now. There is no one with even 50 fights in BoxRec P4P Top 200 US fighters right now. Not even 50 fights! So breaking 100 looks truly unlikely for quite a while.

Yeah, I was debating exactly how to define that. Born in the U.S. vs. raised in the U.S.; from the actual 50 states vs. from an American territory. Regardless of how we're defining it though, it seems like it's been at least 45 years since any U.S. type champion has reached 100 fights.

My instinctive response to a question like this is, if a sport goes on long enough, records will always be broken and milestones always reached. They thought Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak would last forever in baseball but it didn't. But you're right about the lack of a club scene in the U.S. making this far less likely for boxing. When the nature of a sport changes is when it becomes impossible to break records (such as pitchers getting fewer starts in baseball so no one being able to break the record for pitching wins).

Then again, Marty Jakubowski did reach 100 fights in recent years and I think he did eventually get one or maybe two shots at world titles. All it would have taken is one lucky punch and he'd be the answer to this trivia question. So at some point in the (perhaps distant) future I wouldn't be completely shocked if some U.S. fighter does it again.

[Petu v.d. Pajm]

That Midwestern club scene which produced multiple century-men like Marty Jakubowski, Harold Brazier, Buck Smith, Wimpy Halstead plus some lesser lights like Verdell Smith, Lee Cargle, David McCluskey, Rocky Berg & Craig Houk (not even to mention immortal losers Simmie Black and Reggie Strickland) doesn't exist anymore though...

So it is not really about how many years has passed but the infrastructure which enabled Jakubowski to reach his century of fights is not available right now.

I would rather expect it to be achieved by someone who keeps selling his name to advanced age. Hector Camacho (RIP) and James Toney got close. Chop Chop Corley may still add few fights to his record even at the age of 45. Still, he won't reach 100-mark for sure being at 85 now.

[mjaco]

That Midwestern club scene which produced multiple century-men like Marty Jakubowski, Harold Brazier, Buck Smith, Wimpy Halstead plus some lesser lights like Verdell Smith, Lee Cargle, David McCluskey, Rocky Berg & Craig Houk (not even to mention immortal losers Simmie Black and Reggie Strickland) doesn't exist anymore though...

So it is not really about how many years has passed but the infrastructure which enabled Jakubowski to reach his century of fights is not available right now.

I would rather expect it to be achieved by someone who keeps selling his name to advanced age. Hector Camacho (RIP) and James Toney got close. Chop Chop Corley may still add few fights to his record even at the age of 45. Still, he won't reach 100-mark for sure being at 85 now.

Agreed, right now the most likely would be someone who just hangs on forever. While it may not happen during our lifetime, it's impossible to predict what the future landscape will look like. So who knows? A hundred years from now boxers might be back to fighting every other week. The way things are looking at the moment, people may have to start doing that by next year just to make ends meet.