There are two who I feel should qualify as champions but are not often cited as such and so would be overlooked or discounted by most fans.
First, Peter Maher won the title fair and square. I'm not saying Corbett didn't have the right to strip him, but I do not see why Corbett being champion before and after him is such a difficult concept to accept.....there was a time Corbett retired unbeaten, that time is not reflected in Jim's reign at all. If it was, Peter Maher would be considered a champion and Peter Maher has over a 100 KOs.
Next, Sam Langford. The five time colored HW champion was also crowned world HW champion by the National Sporting Club...literally the most prestigious body of all time with direct roots to the Pugilistic Society of 1814....today they are the WBC and BBBoC. Also, he's a Police Gazette champion which is like Ring before Ring. Most Ring champions gets counted...granted most of them have sanctioning belts but usually when they don't people still call them a champion.
If there was ever an alternative champion during the era when we like to pretend there are only one champion per division, it's Langford. If the situation was more present people would consider him a champion....he also has over a hundred.
So you've one guy who is a legitimate winner of the lineal title and another guy who was a champion but isn't recognized so that we can perpetuate a lie about there having ever been any eras with no alternative champions.
- - Where are the Police Gazette archives?
Sam won the French heavy world title in a classic that has oodles more gravitas than the bogus Cali middle title bleating sheep always claim as Henry Armstrong being robbed.
Randomly... who has the least Corbett maybe? Just based on him only having like 20 fights.
Edit: Forgot about this guy.
https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/5642
I think it’s unlikely that record is broken anytime soon tbh. Shannon Briggs mustn’t be too far away. He definitely has 50+.