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I guess I knew it all along, but I recently realized tha though Miguel Cotto has constantly fought the best fighters at 10 and 147 with the exceptions of missing a fight with Hatton, Mayweather and Williams, Cotto has never held a TRUE title in either weight division.
He's held the normal trinkets that fighters of his stature will literally be given at some point, but never the lineal title. It got me thinking of other really good/great fighters that either; never had the chance, lost for reasons we can only speculate about or what have you. Here's my list. Feel free to add on if you'd like.
(I exclude Cotto since I assume most of you know about; Judah, Mosley; Margarito, Torres, Pacquiao, Clottey and so on.)
1. Sam Langford: This is an easy starting point, since he's generally considered the VERY BEST fighter to never hold a world title. Think of it this way. He had close to 270 fights, won 181 of them (had over 30 draws), and fought in te Heavyweight division. With wins over the likes of Tiger Flowers, Harry Wills, Joe Jeannette, Dixie Kid, as well as a string of other quality oposition. All the guys mentioned above have two things in common. They lost to Langford and they're in the IBHOF.
Langford himself is also in the IBHOF, and he was simply never given much of a chance for a title. He and Jack Johnson fought to in a close fight that saw both go down once each. Great fighter.
2. Patrick 'Packey' McFarland: In an era where losses we common, he had none. Without the five draws, he went unblemished with 67 wins, 50 by stoppage. He had wins over a few hall of famers such as Jack Britton and Freddie Welsh. This would be more than enough to get someone a title shot in this day and age, but his never really came.
3. Young Stribling: Stribling fought close to 290 fights and lost about a dozen (Conflicting records about whether it's 12 or 13 or what have you). Insane. When you factor in that he faced Maxie Rosenbloom, Max Schmeling, Primo Carnera (though both fights were probably fixed with Primo), Jack Sharkey, Paul Berlenbach, Jimmy Slattery, Mike McTigue.
An interesting note about the McTigue fight. Mike had won the Light Heavyweight title from Battling Siki, though most say that Siki could/should have gotten the nod. Nonetheless, Siki was in Ireland, on St. Patricks Day, fighting an Irishman, during a civil war. McTigue defended his title against Stribling, and early reports indicated that the referee raised the hand of Stribling and declared him the winner. He was technically world champion for one hour, before the ref came back out and ruled that he had said the fight was a draw, and was threatened into playing along with the whole thing. Stribling wasn't considered the champion after the fight.
4. Harry Wills: With close to 100 fights, he only lost around 10 and most could make an argument hat it was fewer than that. He beat Sam Langford on SEVERAL occasions and most think he should have gotten a nod over Joe Jeannette (winning a newspaper decision in atleast one of their contests. Kid Norfolk was also a victim of note. Jack Sharkey did give him a pretty good beating, but i't's on of his few clar losses.
There's my list. What do you guys think and who else do you guys have?
He's held the normal trinkets that fighters of his stature will literally be given at some point, but never the lineal title. It got me thinking of other really good/great fighters that either; never had the chance, lost for reasons we can only speculate about or what have you. Here's my list. Feel free to add on if you'd like.
(I exclude Cotto since I assume most of you know about; Judah, Mosley; Margarito, Torres, Pacquiao, Clottey and so on.)
1. Sam Langford: This is an easy starting point, since he's generally considered the VERY BEST fighter to never hold a world title. Think of it this way. He had close to 270 fights, won 181 of them (had over 30 draws), and fought in te Heavyweight division. With wins over the likes of Tiger Flowers, Harry Wills, Joe Jeannette, Dixie Kid, as well as a string of other quality oposition. All the guys mentioned above have two things in common. They lost to Langford and they're in the IBHOF.
Langford himself is also in the IBHOF, and he was simply never given much of a chance for a title. He and Jack Johnson fought to in a close fight that saw both go down once each. Great fighter.
2. Patrick 'Packey' McFarland: In an era where losses we common, he had none. Without the five draws, he went unblemished with 67 wins, 50 by stoppage. He had wins over a few hall of famers such as Jack Britton and Freddie Welsh. This would be more than enough to get someone a title shot in this day and age, but his never really came.
3. Young Stribling: Stribling fought close to 290 fights and lost about a dozen (Conflicting records about whether it's 12 or 13 or what have you). Insane. When you factor in that he faced Maxie Rosenbloom, Max Schmeling, Primo Carnera (though both fights were probably fixed with Primo), Jack Sharkey, Paul Berlenbach, Jimmy Slattery, Mike McTigue.
An interesting note about the McTigue fight. Mike had won the Light Heavyweight title from Battling Siki, though most say that Siki could/should have gotten the nod. Nonetheless, Siki was in Ireland, on St. Patricks Day, fighting an Irishman, during a civil war. McTigue defended his title against Stribling, and early reports indicated that the referee raised the hand of Stribling and declared him the winner. He was technically world champion for one hour, before the ref came back out and ruled that he had said the fight was a draw, and was threatened into playing along with the whole thing. Stribling wasn't considered the champion after the fight.
4. Harry Wills: With close to 100 fights, he only lost around 10 and most could make an argument hat it was fewer than that. He beat Sam Langford on SEVERAL occasions and most think he should have gotten a nod over Joe Jeannette (winning a newspaper decision in atleast one of their contests. Kid Norfolk was also a victim of note. Jack Sharkey did give him a pretty good beating, but i't's on of his few clar losses.
There's my list. What do you guys think and who else do you guys have?
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