by David P. Greisman
Fighters who have been defeated aren’t necessarily left at a loss. Few retire unbeaten. Nearly all go on with their careers after suffering their first blemish, or a second, or a third. Many find a way to thrive afterward.
This isn’t a grand revelation. The heavyweight champion, Wladimir Klitschko, fought a month ago, notching his 18th straight successful title defense in a reign that began after he’d suffered his third loss by technical knockout. Canelo Alvarez, who lost a clear decision in 2013, drew more than 31,000 people for his fight two weeks ago and pulled in the biggest rating for boxing on HBO since 2006.
This past Friday brought Alexander Povetkin his third straight knockout and earned him another shot at the heavyweight title, an opportunity that comes after a lopsided loss to Klitschko in one of the most aesthetically dreadful heavyweight title fights ever. The next day had James DeGale, who’d come up short against fellow prospect George Groves back in 2011, win a vacant super middleweight title by topping Andre Dirrell, who had lost a split decision to Carl Froch in 2009.
And the next handful of weeks will see several fighters get a major spotlight, competing in bouts where wins could propel them to heights that may have seemed unreachable when they were at their lowest points. (There’ll be more on some of those bouts later on in this column.)
It’s not true that nobody’s perfect. Many are for now, though nearly all will ultimately see the other man in the ring raise his arms into the air. Prospects will reach the limits of their physical skills and their promotional matchmaking. Contenders will run into someone better. Titleholders will be in decline or defend against someone ascendant.
It doesn’t end there. Nearly all of those with world title belts are far from perfect, which goes to show that they were far from done.
They can’t all be Floyd Mayweather Jr., who latched on to his zero with the same hunger of a newborn child to a nipple. The idea of retiring undefeated sustains him seemingly as much as the huge paydays he receives, propelling him through the rigors of training camps still at 38 years old and after nearly 19 years as a pro fighter and many more in the amateur ranks beforehand.
Mayweather isn’t the only champion without a loss on his record.
A quick aside for the next few paragraphs: There are 17 divisions in boxing. Naming a lineal champion — a true champion who either beat the man who beat the man, and so on, or who was atop the rankings of his weight class when he beat someone similarly situated — can depend on who’s doing the naming.
The Transnational Boxing Ratings Board, which has 45 writers in its ranks, has nine lineal champions: Klitschko at heavyweight, Adonis Stevenson at light heavyweight, Andre Ward at super middleweight, Miguel Cotto at middleweight, Mayweather at junior middleweight and also at welterweight, Danny Garcia at junior welterweight, Guillermo Rigondeaux at junior featherweight, and Roman Gonzalez at flyweight. THE RING magazine, which loosened its standards years ago, also has Yoan Pablo Hernandez at cruiserweight, stripped Ward due to inactivity, and has Donnie Nietes at junior flyweight.
That’s 10 men in 11 divisions. Half of them have yet to be defeated: Ward, Mayweather, Garcia, Rigondeaux and Gonzalez. (There used to be 11 men in 12 divisions until Terence Crawford moved up from lightweight. He, too, is undefeated.)
Klitschko lost to Ross Puritty in 1998, Corrie Sanders in 2003, and Lamon Brewster in 2004. He was thought to be chinless and done, lacking the punch resistance, confidence and stamina needed to succeed. Then he altered his style, lost the deer-in-the-headlights look that came out whenever he was under pressure and under fire, and has been dominant since.
Hernandez was stopped in the third round by Wayne Braithwaite back in 2008. He hasn’t lost in seven years, has won 15 in a row, picked up a world title in 2011 and has made four successful defenses since.
Stevenson got taken out in the second round by Darnell Boone in 2010, felled by the same tough journeyman who once dropped Ward and has been a tough test to many prospects, some of whom suffered similar fates. Stevenson later got revenge, then went up to light heavyweight to knock out Chad Dawson, becoming lineal champion and making five successful defenses during the past two years.
Cotto has four defeats, two of them against great opponents (Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao), one against a very good one (Antonio Margarito), and one against a good boxer who was a bad stylistic matchup (Austin Trout). He held world titles at 140, 147 and 154, but his win over a badly hobbled Sergio Martinez at middleweight was the first time Cotto became a lineal champion. Then again, while he is the man who beat the man, he is not considered the best in his division. That designation belongs to Gennady Golovkin, a power-puncher who, yes, is undefeated at 33-0 with 30 KOs.
Nietes, like Klitschko, hasn’t lost in more than a decade. He went to Indonesia in 2004, a 108-pounder challenging an overweight 114-pounder, Angky Angkotta, in Angkotta’s home country. Angkotta won a split decision. Nietes went on to hold a world title at 105 pounds from 2007 to 2010 and has held a belt at 108 pounds since 2011.
These 10 champions are among the 51 men who hold major world titles in the 17 divisions.
Of those 51, 23 are undefeated:
- Deontay Wilder at heavyweight
- Sergey Kovalev at light heavyweight
- Ward at super middleweight
- Golovkin at middleweight
- Demetrius Andrade at junior middleweight;
- Mayweather at junior middleweight and welterweight
- Kell Brook at welterweight
- Danny Garcia and Terence Crawford at junior welterweight
- Takashi Uchiyama at junior lightweight
- Evgeny Gradovich and Nicholas Walters at featherweight
- Carl Frampton, Leo Santa Cruz and Rigondeaux at junior featherweight
- Randy Caballero, Juan Carlos Payano and Shinsuke Yamanaka at bantamweight
- Carlos Cuadras and Naoya Inoue at junior bantamweight
- Gonzalez and Amnat Ruenroeng at flyweight
- Wanheng Menayothin at strawweight
One reason there can be so many fighters with losses yet with world titles is that there are just so many belts in general: 68 major titles overall. That’s why Gary Russell Jr., who wasn’t great enough to beat the highly talented Vasyl Lomachenko, was still more than gifted enough to make quick work of Jhonny Gonzalez.
There are instances of titleholders who will never belong in the conversation as being among the best in his division — the belt Cornelius Bundrage has is part of a line at junior middleweight that hasn’t been impressive since when it belonged to Winky Wright in 2004. In recent years, the title’s owners have included Cory Spinks, Ishe Smith, Carlos Molina and Bundrage himself in an earlier reign.
But the other thing is that a loss isn’t always representative of a fighter who won’t be able to do any better. Sometimes they can and do improve and move on.
Amir Khan, like Klitschko, lost in a devastating knockout that had people questioning his chin when Breidis Prescott finished him in less than a minute in 2008. Khan went up to junior welterweight, won a title, then lost a controversial split decision to Lamont Peterson and then suffered a fourth-round stoppage at the capably powerful hands of Danny Garcia.
Khan is now a welterweight and is biding his time, waiting for a title shot. He faces Chris Algieri this Friday. Should he win, he’ll likely be up for one of the three belts that Mayweather said he’ll be vacating at 147 pounds.
On June 20, one card will have Shawn Porter vs. Adrien Broner while another features Hassan N’Dam against David Lemieux.
Porter lost a welterweight title to Kell Brook last year. Broner, who previously held belts at 130, 135 and 147, lost his own welterweight title to Marcos Maidana back in 2013. Theirs is a crossroads fight at a contractual catch-weight of 144 pounds. Broner’s reflexes had looked slower against Maidana. He’d weighed in at 144.5 for that fight but had to lose a lot of weight before the bout — and rehydrated plenty back by fight night. Broner had dropped down one division after the Maidana defeat; this is a high-profile stay-busy fight for him. Meanwhile, it’s a chance for Porter to raise his stature, perhaps pushing him toward a fight with Keith Thurman should he win.
N’Dam was knocked down six times in his title loss to Peter Quillin back in 2012. He’s been rebuilding himself slowly and has won four in a row to earn a fight for a vacant world title. Lemieux was a touted prospect who came up short twice in a row, getting stopped by Marco Antonio Rubio and then dropping a decision to Joachim Alcine in 2011. Lemieux has bounced back with eight straight victories, seven by way of knockout, and has increased his stardom in the boxing-hungry city of Montreal. The winner of their fight could move on to a unification bout with Gennady Golovkin.
Timothy Bradley’s lone loss was to Manny Pacquiao in 2014, though he also barely edged Ruslan Provodnikov in a war in 2013, won a close decision over Juan Manuel Marquez later that year, and was held to a draw by Diego Chaves late last year. He’ll face Jessie Vargas, who is moving up from junior welterweight, an unbeaten junior welterweight who benefited from some controversial decisions. Their bout is for one of the world titles Mayweather vacated.
They can’t all be Mayweather. Almost none of the greatest fighters was. Muhammad Ali’s first loss came in his first fight with Joe Frazier. Sugar Ray Robinson’s first defeat came in his second bout with Jake LaMotta. Sugar Ray Leonard only remained undefeated for a little more than three years, losing in his first bout with Roberto Duran. Bernard Hopkins lost in his first pro fight by decision. So did Juan Manuel Marquez, by disqualification.
All had great moments afterward.
Almost all of the fighters today will never come close to approaching the accomplishments of these Hall of Fame inductees and all-time greats. That isn’t a grand revelation either.
But for many of those at or near the top of their divisions now, a fight ending in a loss shouldn’t mean that the loss ends the fighter. Their stories are still being written. They need not be written off.
The 10 Count will return soon.
“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com