Who is the best fighter to become champion with the most losses?

[cotto16]

Who had the most defeats before becoming champion?

[GJC]

I'll leave it to others to trudge through boxingrec. Dick Tiger and Fritzie Zivic might be worth looking at though both racked up a lot of losses all through their careers.

[Southpaw16BF]

Jim Braddock-25 Losses
Fritzie Zivic-24 Losses
Archie Moore-19 Losses
Joe Brown-18 Losses
Jersey Joe Walcott-16 Losses
Joey Maxim-16 Losses
Tony Zale-15 Losses
Dick Tiger-14 Losses
Jake Lamotta-13 Losses
Manuel Ortiz-12 Losses
Freddie Mills-12 Losses

There's a fair good few (Note some of these could not be a 100% accurate and some may be incomplete due to the era the fighter was fighting in)

[1SILVA]

Fritzie Zivic-24 Losses
Archie Moore-19 Losses
Joe Brown-18 Losses
Jersey Joe Walcott-16 Losses
Joey Maxim-16 Losses
Tony Zale-15 Losses
Dick Tiger-14 Losses
Jake Lamotta-13 Losses
Manuel Ortiz-12 Losses
Freddie Mills-12 Losses

There's a fair good few (Note some of these could not be a 100% accurate and some may be incomplete due to the era the fighter was fighting in)

You can add Freddie Pendleton who had 17 losses and Kelvin Seabrooks who had 13 losses

[Kid McCoy]

Jim Braddock had 25 defeats before he won the title.

[mickey malone]

Steve Robinson had lost 9 out of 23 before winning the WBO FW title..