Weakest title defences

[Controversial]

Any era or division and they needed to make at least 2 defences. Poorest level of opposition.

[giacomino]

I will start the bidding at Robert Stieglitz. Held a super MW belt for the better part of four years. Fought a past his prime Abraham three times but the rest of his defenses bordered on shameful.
Also, Shumenov. https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/427368. Lost to old man Hopkins the only time he fought anyone with much of a pulse over the course of two divisions and eight years.

[margaret thatcher]

I will start the bidding at Robert Stieglitz. Held a super MW belt for the better part of four years. Fought a past his prime Abraham three times but the rest of his defenses bordered on shameful.
Also, Shumenov. https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/427368. Lost to old man Hopkins the only time he fought anyone with much of a pulse over the course of two divisions and eight years.

campillo had a pulse too........of course he also beat shumenov and got horribly robbed in the rematch

something was always very shady about shumenov's relationship with the wba, he is reported to come from a very wealthy oil family. wonder if that had something to do with it lol

the funny thing is.....when he started his career he showed loads of ambition and was very easy to like. but then he seemed to realize what his level was and eventually became a bit of a laughing stock due to the robbery + soft fights

[giacomino]

I will start the bidding at Robert Stieglitz. Held a super MW belt for the better part of four years. Fought a past his prime Abraham three times but the rest of his defenses bordered on shameful.
Also, Shumenov. https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/427368. Lost to old man Hopkins the only time he fought anyone with much of a pulse over the course of two divisions and eight years.

campillo had a pulse too........of course he also beat shumenov and got horribly robbed in the rematch

something was always very shady about shumenov's relationship with the wba, he is reported to come from a very wealthy oil family. wonder if that had something to do with it lol

the funny thing is.....when he started his career he showed loads of ambition and was very easy to like. but then he seemed to realize what his level was and eventually became a bit of a laughing stock due to the robbery + soft fights

In the Campillo fight, he was the challenger. The question was about title defenses. I agree Campillo was horribly robbed, one of the worst I've seen in 50 years watching boxing. Whenever people complain that some 115-113 fight was a robbery, I am tempted to suggest they watch that fight so they understand the meaning of the word.
Shumenov was a hot commodity before that fight. I think he comes from a billionaire family and he was probably paying the WBA to let him fight patsies for titles/title defenses.

[margaret thatcher]

campillo-cloud also a lesson in how a guy can be dropped multiple times but still clearly deserve the decision. poor gabe didnt have the judges on his side

[margaret thatcher]

id put billy dib up there https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/265500

[giacomino]

campillo-cloud also a lesson in how a guy can be dropped multiple times but still clearly deserve the decision. poor gabe didnt have the judges on his side

Yeah, another shtye decision. Campillo had every meaningful fight in his career on the road (like most boxers these days from Argentina, Spain and Nicaragua, among others) so he was always going to get hosed with his style, but those two were bad.

[scartissue]

Any era or division and they needed to make at least 2 defences. Poorest level of opposition.

If I'm reading this post correctly, I would say probably Tommy Hearns and Milt McCrory had probably two of the worst reigns I've seen. After beating Cuevas, so many great things were expected of Tommy but he defended against Luis Primera, Randy Shields and Pablo Baez. Primera was 15-0 against no rated opposition. He himself was unrated but I'm sure the WBA would have had him as their #1 contender. Pablo Baez was nothing but a club fighter. Randy Shields was OK, but I don't think it would be possible to find a safer opponent with a name. Randy had no punch and a great jaw. This adds up to Randy taking a solid beating and nothing but. Which is exactly what happened. After those 3 'defenses', Tommy met his Waterloo in a unification against Leonard.

McCrory defended against Milton Guest, Giles Elbillia, Pedro Vilella and Carlos Trujillo. Guest was OK, but he was just a prospect, really nothing more. Elbilia and Vilella found themselves quite lucky to be immediately tapped to fight for the title after lucky wins over Nino LaRocca and Marlon Starling respectively. Now those would have been impressive defenses, but Emmanuel Steward jumped at the chance to fight these two 'contenders' instead. And lastly Carlos Trujillo, a Panamanian of absolutely no threat was McCrory's last defense before he too met his Waterloo in a unification match against Curry. To sum up how bad Milt's opposition was, not one of them ever one another fight again.

As the specter of a unification match was on the horizon and Emmanuel steward wanted to take absolutely no chances to upset the applecart by fighting a live opponent, then he did his job. Unfortunately history will look at those defenses as dire.

[dagosd2000]

Joe Frazier surprised me when he opted for Terry Daniels and then Ron Stander for defenses. These two weren't even ranked in the top 10 when they stepped in the ring.I remember before the Foreman fight they thought Frazier would win that one pretty easily. No one had yet stood up to Frazier's left hook. One column said that George's best weapon was his jab.After Foreman gave Joe such a bad drubbing it's hard to think that George was the underdog in that fight.

[evrenb]

Joe Frazier surprised me when he opted for Terry Daniels and then Ron Stander for defenses. These two weren't even ranked in the top 10 when they stepped in the ring.I remember before the Foreman fight they thought Frazier would win that one pretty easily. No one had yet stood up to Frazier's left hook. One column said that George's best weapon was his jab.After Foreman gave Joe such a bad drubbing it's hard to think that George was the underdog in that fight.

Truly one of the most awesome performances by any boxer ever. If you watch the reverse angle film version it is truly frightening how George attacks and how merciless he is to Frazier. He was also so much sharper than in other fights. George really turned on his performances when he had a high ranked opponent or was under threat.

[Caractacus]

The "reverse angle film motion" ?
was it broadcast/filmed by another television crew ?
It was HBO's first living boxing event ( but only shown by HBO in Florida and Pennsylvania)
( there is a thread here on this forum about big fights
being televised then more then one TV crew present)

[HomicideHenry]

Any era or division and they needed to make at least 2 defences. Poorest level of opposition.

Well, considering there is some of us who still believe in the legitimacy of the lineal title meaning more than belts...

It's hard to argue against the lineal title defenses of Tyson Fury against Sefer Seferi, Francesco Pianeta, Tom Scwarz and Otto Wallin as being among the weakest of title defenses ever of the lineal championship.

I'm sure there is far worse examples. One that comes to mind is Jim Jeffries defense against John Finnegan, who was a sparring partner for the champion. Jeffries stopped him in 55 seconds, and I think Finnegan was 4-2-4 as a professional.

Maybe Joe Louis's defense of the New York version of the heavyweight title against 3-3-0 Johnny Davis is arguably the weakest of all title defenses.

Jesus Christ Almighty God bless you all

[giacomino]

I would throw in Luis Estaba, who won a junior flyweight belt in 1975 against an opponent with no previous listed fights. He then defended against opponents with records of 8-4-1, 6-3-1 and 6-4 in his first three defenses. Maybe three of his 11 defenses were legit, the rest largely cupcakes

[Controversial]

Johnny Nelson had several, Bruce Scott, Willard Lewis, Sione Asipeli, Christophe Girard, Pietro Aurino, Adam Watt and George Arias to name a few. I've never heard of most of his challengers.

[giacomino]

Anthony Mundine's paper title defenses were pretty shameful https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/14646

[Controversial]

Gianfranco Rosi. IBF title defences against Troy Waters, Kevin Daigle, Rene Jacquot, Ron Amundson, Gilbert Baptist and Angel Hernandez, again I haven't heard of most.

[margaret thatcher]

sione asipeli is one of the great '10 round fighters' who james toney beat......that's the only reason ive heard of him

[handsofstone]

Stuart Hall against Martin Ward

[Nile4000]

Any era or division and they needed to make at least 2 defences. Poorest level of opposition.

If I'm reading this post correctly, I would say probably Tommy Hearns and Milt McCrory had probably two of the worst reigns I've seen. After beating Cuevas, so many great things were expected of Tommy but he defended against Luis Primera, Randy Shields and Pablo Baez. Primera was 15-0 against no rated opposition. He himself was unrated but I'm sure the WBA would have had him as their #1 contender. Pablo Baez was nothing but a club fighter. Randy Shields was OK, but I don't think it would be possible to find a safer opponent with a name. Randy had no punch and a great jaw. This adds up to Randy taking a solid beating and nothing but. Which is exactly what happened. After those 3 'defenses', Tommy met his Waterloo in a unification against Leonard.

McCrory defended against Milton Guest, Giles Elbillia, Pedro Vilella and Carlos Trujillo. Guest was OK, but he was just a prospect, really nothing more. Elbilia and Vilella found themselves quite lucky to be immediately tapped to fight for the title after lucky wins over Nino LaRocca and Marlon Starling respectively. Now those would have been impressive defenses, but Emmanuel Steward jumped at the chance to fight these two 'contenders' instead. And lastly Carlos Trujillo, a Panamanian of absolutely no threat was McCrory's last defense before he too met his Waterloo in a unification match against Curry. To sum up how bad Milt's opposition was, not one of them ever one another fight again.

As the specter of a unification match was on the horizon and Emmanuel steward wanted to take absolutely no chances to upset the applecart by fighting a live opponent, then he did his job. Unfortunately history will look at those defenses as dire.

If Milton had unified against Curry as originally planned, he may have fought better competition.

[Seamus]

I'll probably draw some heat for saying this, but Manuel Ortiz had quite a few soft title defenses.

[Syntax Error]

Kell Brook had a pi$$ poor reign as world champion.

The IBF deserve some special recognition for sanctioning his title defences at a time when 147 was smoking.

It's a shame because Brook was better than that.