Greatest "Paper" Champion?

[bklynboy]

well ali shuffles definition of a paper champion is wrong. neighter frazier or patterson were paper champions at all.

paper champions didnt excist until the multiple titles came along. then u was able to hold a belt that didnt mean anything, a paper title, hense be a paper champion. it has nothing to do with weather u win a vacant title or take it from the champion. ali wasnt active so frazier was THE man, not a paper champion. patterson won a tournament with all the top contenders at HW, so he was THE man. calzaghe held one of 4 titles and only defended it against bums = paper champion

Funny how in golf or tennis you can win one of the four major championships and not be called a champ -- or the best in the game. I think that many fans are starting to make that leap in boxing as well. You can have a belt and not be a champ. Of course in tennis and in golf the best players compete for all the championships every year.

Boxing is way more complicated. We all would like to see something different than what we have.

[JC Warrior]

Lennox Lewis or Joe Frazier its a tossup in my estimation. Lewis got awarded his belt from a trash can and Joe frazier was paper champ until he beat Ali. Calzaghe an honorable mention there as well but in my mind the best of 'em all to get the belt for nothing was Lewis.

[portuge puncher]

joe frazier,

the lineal title was empty when Ali left,
joe fought jimmy ellis (or quarry),
and won the vacont lineal title.

[Jim Jeffries]

Bernard Hopkins and Larry Holmes, by definition were "paper" champs, at least for some time, and I rank both quite a bit higher than Joe Calzaghe. Both Bhop and Larry both went on to become legitimate, true champs though.

[TheGreatA]

joe frazier,

the lineal title was empty when Ali left,
joe fought jimmy ellis (or quarry),
and won the vacont lineal title.

I think this thread should be reserved for those greats who never did actually win the linear title.

Ceferino Garcia was one of the best welterweights to never win a title and won the NYSAC recognized middleweight title by KO'ing Fred Apostoli. Tony Zale held the NBA version of the title and later unified the belts by beating Georgie Abrams.

Gene Fullmer won the legit world middleweight title from Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957 and later in his career held the NBA version of the middleweight title, the linear champion being Paul Pender who had somewhat controversially beaten Robinson twice.

Fullmer was pretty much thought to be the legit middleweight champion at the time. He defended his claim against such men as Ray Robinson, Carmen Basilio, Giardello, Benny Paret, Spider Webb, Florentino Fernandez and **** Tiger.

Harry Wills was never officially champ but he held the coloured heavyweight title and for the most part did better work in the division than the champion Jack Dempsey during his reign.

Ken Norton was a great heavyweight but he only held the WBA belt for a brief time after beating Jimmy Young and lost it to Larry Holmes in his first title defense.

[Obama]

The current greatest paper champion in boxing: Zsolt Erdei

Zsolt, the lineal LHW Champion of the World!

Virgil Hill -> Darius M. -> Julio Cesar Gonzalez -> Zsolt Erdei

Erdei is 30-0, and has been a World Champion for about 5.4 years, making 11 title defenses.

I've never seen a guy with a paper accomplishment this good with such a low profile. To be honest the wins on his resume since winning the title aren't even all that bad:

Mehdi Sahnoune (former WBA LHW Champ)
Thomas Ulrich (beat the guy that won the title from Sahnoune)
Yuri Barashian (beat Ulrich )

OK OK, on to the more serious ones:

Julio Cesar Gonzalez
Hugo Hernan Garay (x2)