Worst Title Defenses Of All Time

[Seamus]

To get things started.

Jack Johnson v Battling Jim Johnson
Joe Louis v Bob Roper
Joe Louis v Harry Thomas
Joe Louis v Al McCoy
Joe Frazier v Terry Daniels
Manuel Ortiz v Kenny Lindsay twice
Manuel Ortiz v Joe Robleto twice
Manuel Ortiz v Lupe Cardoza
Manuel Ortiz v George Freitas
Abe Attell v Billy DeCoursey

[giacomino]

A few among active, recently active or semi-active fighters:
Celestino Caballero vs Elvis Mejia
Pongsaklek Wonjongkam vs Jesus Martinez
Veeraphol Sahaprom vs Julio Cesar Avila, Julio Coronel, Sergio Perez, Oscar Arciniega, Mauro Leonardo Blanc
Feliz Sturm vs Noe Gonzalez Alcoba, Jamie Pittman
Zsolt Erdei vs George Blades, Tito Mendoza, DeAndrey Abron
Enzo Maccarinelli vs Bobby Gunn, Mohamed Azzaoui
Anthony Mundine vs Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas, Jose Alberto Clavero, Nader Hamaden
Markus Beyer vs Yoshinori Nishizawa
Marco Antonio Barrera vs Luis Freitas, Richie Wenton
Erik Morales vs Eddie Croft

[dr_devious]

Joe Calzaghe vs Kidfire Mcintyre
Joe C vs Rick Thornberry

[purple.obi]

Riddick Bowe defending against Michael Dokes and Jesse Ferguson. That was disgraceful. At first I thought you meant, well, for example, Trevor Berbick's sad defense of his title to some guy named Tyson.

[My2Sense]

How can anyone forget Roy Jones-Rick Frazier - the modern epitome of a "bad" title defense.

Other examples...

Davey Moore (the original) vs. Danny Valdez and Ollie Maeki
Carlos Zarate vs. Kpalongo (45-2 record my ass!! )

[EriqS]

Gianfranco Rosi defending his IBF Junior Middleweight Title against unknown Kevin Daigle, who was something like 15-9.

[My2Sense]

Come to think of it, about half of Zarate's title defenses could be on here.

[My2Sense]

LOL, we're forgetting the most obvious one of all...

Floyd Patterson vs. Pete Rademacher!

[Goodnight, Irene]

How can anyone forget Roy Jones-Rick Frazier - the modern epitome of a "bad" title defense.

Other examples...

Davey Moore (the original) vs. Danny Valdez and Ollie Maeki
Carlos Zarate vs. Kpalongo (45-2 record my ass!! )

I was going to mention the former, & I'm a die-hard Jones fan (the fighter, not so much the fellow) from way back when.

Seamus, some talk of Louis, but no mention of the infamous Paychek?

[HomicideHenry]

Maurice Hope-Bob Baker

[bollox]

Jeff Fenech - Greg Richardson for the WBC 122 title. Richardson could have made flyweight that night and was literally thrown around the ring by Fenech

[Saurfang]

Muhammad Ali-Richard Dunn
Benard Hopkins-Morrade Hakkar

[Ambling Alp]

Those were two pretty good examples. Btw, both were pretty funny fights.
Dunn got knocked down to one knee briefly and bounced up trying to throw a behind the back punch.
Watching Hakkar literally running from Hopkins was pretty funny as well.

[Goodnight, Irene]

Ali's wind-up punch at the end got the crowd going. Dunn's chin was terrible, but he wanted to win, at least. Hakkar had nothing, wanted nothing.

[EriqS]

Also, Ali vs. Jean Pierre Coopman

[Dart340]

Pipino Cuevas verses Scott Clark- Clark disappeared after the fight never to be seen again.
Lupe Pintor verses Jose Uziga- Uziga ran and slapped and lost by one score of something like 150-124...
Elisha Obed verses Sea Robinson- Try and find something, anything on the obscure journeyman Robinson and the fight being held in Abidjan..
Elisha Obed verses Tony Gardner- Gardner won a bunch of nothing fights in Oklahoma against guys with losing records to get the shot.

The Frazier-Daniels fight was only saved by the fact that Daniels fought with incredible courage and heart.

Good thread.

[Seamus]

Wilfredo Gomez v Alfredo Layne. Only thing more ridiculous than giving Layne a title shot was getting stopped by him.

[The Great John L]

Palomino-Palacios
Palomino-Sorimachi
Palomino-Mohatar
Foreman-Roman
Jeffries-Finnegan
Ali-Lubbers

[scartissue]

Palomino-Palacios
Palomino-Sorimachi
Palomino-Mohatar
Foreman-Roman
Jeffries-Finnegan
Ali-Lubbers

Ali-Lubbers wasn't a title fight, but I like the way you think. How about Luis Estaba-Rafael Lovera for the vacant lt. Fly title. Lovera having his 1st pro fight.

Scartissue

[The Great John L]

Palomino-Palacios
Palomino-Sorimachi
Palomino-Mohatar
Foreman-Roman
Jeffries-Finnegan
Ali-Lubbers

Ali-Lubbers wasn't a title fight, but I like the way you think. How about Luis Estaba-Rafael Lovera for the vacant lt. Fly title. Lovera having his 1st pro fight.

Scartissue

Yeah I forgot about the Libbers fight being a non-title. It's been a very long time.

The scary thing about the Palomino fights listed is that they were back to back and all televised. Palomino was really getting the media push then.

[My2Sense]

Foreman-Roman

Good one.

[My2Sense]

Jeff Fenech - Greg Richardson for the WBC 122 title. Richardson could have made flyweight that night and was literally thrown around the ring by Fenech

Funny enough, Richardson was actually a legitimately ranked contender even up at 122, with some decent wins in his career (Gaby Canizales, Oscar Muniz). I have no idea why he insisted on fighting so much up from his natural weight though, he was basically natural jr. bantamweight.

[scartissue]

OK, here is the Motherlode of deplorable title defenses. And it's not just one but nearly 2 complete title reigns. Both from the same stable and all with the WBA's stamp of approval. Milton McCrory after beating some decent opposition on his way to the WBA welterweight title was OK'd to "defend" (for lack of a better word) against Milton Guest, Gilles Elbillia, Pedro Villela and Carlos Trujillo. 4 no-hopers whom, if you look at their records, one can hardly find one decent opponent (I found one or two). It was poetic justice for him to get clocked in the 2nd round by Curry by finally stepping up. Also, let's not forget Tommy Hearns who made 3 title defenses before the unification with Leonard. The Randy Shields fight was OK, but Shields lack of punch was never going to make the Hearns camp worry. But check out his other two defenses. Luis Primera and Pablo Baez. Nothing more than clubfighters. Manny Steward should hang his head in shame for foisting that crap on the public, as should the WBA.

Scartissue

[giacomino]

OK, here is the Motherlode of deplorable title defenses. And it's not just one but nearly 2 complete title reigns. Both from the same stable and all with the WBA's stamp of approval. Milton McCrory after beating some decent opposition on his way to the WBA welterweight title was OK'd to "defend" (for lack of a better word) against Milton Guest, Gilles Elbillia, Pedro Villela and Carlos Trujillo. 4 no-hopers whom, if you look at their records, one can hardly find one decent opponent (I found one or two). It was poetic justice for him to get clocked in the 2nd round by Curry by finally stepping up. Also, let's not forget Tommy Hearns who made 3 title defenses before the unification with Leonard. The Randy Shields fight was OK, but Shields lack of punch was never going to make the Hearns camp worry. But check out his other two defenses. Luis Primera and Pablo Baez. Nothing more than clubfighters. Manny Steward should hang his head in shame for foisting that crap on the public, as should the WBA.

Scartissue

Not bad. Forced myself to watch most of these live in the 80s and they were stinkers. Villela actually earned the title shot by outpointing Marlon Starling, but then he did next to nothing against McCroy. Ebilia was a particularly bad defense. He had zero punching power and mediocre boxing skills and McCroy just slapped him around for six rounds until it was stopped. Side note: In his next fight, Ebilia was Ko'd back in France by one of the ridiculous Hearns title challengers you mentioned, Pablo Baez. After the Ebilia fight, Baez lost his last four, three by KO, and retired 16-16

[giacomino]

Another great case of back-to-back-to-back stinkers. Ralph Rocchigiani of Germany fought, in consecutive WBO cruiserweight defenses, Dan Ward, Jay Snyder and a 40-year-old Bash Ali. Ward was a 5'9 cruiserweight who fought mostly on small shows in Tennessee. He had a 25-5 record and had been KO'd in one round by a then 35-year-old, washed up Tommy Hearns the year before being given a title shot by Rocchigiani, Jay Snyder built a 19-1 record in small-town shows in the South and had been Ko'd in one round by an 8-2 fighter in the fall of 1995. He ko'd a 2-44 fighter a month later and that "earned" him a title shot. Finally there was Ali, who was a contender in the 1980s. He had been shut out in a title shot against Bobby Czyz in 1991, then occasionally fought nobodies, mostly in Nigeria, before getting a last title shot in Germany against Rocchigiani in 1996