Fighters that earned their titles?

[daggum]

ward was a carefully manufactured product. you have to deal with that. i know he recently retired so you are probably still in fan mode where the endorphins are kicking in but hopefully soon you will be able to look back at his fights and say wow how did i support and defend this crap???

[chrisJS]

Judah still had the title, not vacant

You don't think that was a kind of BS though? I mean how do you lose your other titles but are allowed to keep one off of a loss like that?

Judah being a "champion" at that point was a joke.

[Real King Kong]

Floyd Mayweather!!!!

No vacant titles.Beat a champ for every damn one of his titles

A fighter who faces another top contender for a vacant belt earns it just the same. Tbh with so many "titles" and paper champs these days, you really have to look at each title winning fight to judge the merit of each accomplishment. In many cases fighters face better opposition in non title fights than other fighters do in title winning fights.

[leathernvouges]

When he beat Judah it was for the vacant title. Judah was coming off a loss to Baldomir. So not every one. Then you've also got the catchweight for Canelo which takes something away and then Gatti had no biz being the 140 champ. Got gifted the vacant belt after Tszyu had all the belts.

On another note why didn’t Floyd fight tszyu

[Larry the boss]

You don't think that was a kind of BS though? I mean how do you lose your other titles but are allowed to keep one off of a loss like that?

Judah being a "champion" at that point was a joke.

yea it was bogus

[chrisJS]

On another note why didn’t Floyd fight tszyu

Tszyu was one of the fighters exclusively signed to Showtime and HBO had Mayweather. Neither were a big enough star to make the two come together or go over to the other network (also the contracts were exclusive).

Time frame also didn't align. Tszyu was unified at 140 in November of 2001 and Floyd just just moving to 135 where he won a controversial decision of Castillo so had to re-match by that time Tszyu had a mandatory against Mitchell twice postponed due to career threatening injuries so by the time that fight was done was when Mayweather was moving to 140.

I'd like to have seen Mayweather push for a Tszyu match but he went for Gatti and Tszyu took a fight for big bucks with Hatton. That was probably the only window and both guys fought opponents that probably paid them more than they'd have made with each other minus the political headache of Showtime & HBO.

Neither were really stars at the same time. In hindsight you have those two guys near in weight you'd want to see it just never seemed realistic.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Trinidad too. Won the IBF off Blocker, unified against unbeaten De La Hoya with the WBC. Moved to 154 beat unbeaten Reid for WBA and unified IBF with unbeaten Vargas then won WBA 160 against Joppy.

Most multi-weight champions had a vacant belt in there or a gimme but not Tito.

Yeah Tito is another good shout... won all his titles from solid opposition

[club fighter]

Chris Byrd

[chrisJS]

Yeah Tito is another good shout... won all his titles from solid opposition

In this modern era of multiple titles its very difficult to go on a multi-weight reign without vacant titles or without some B.S like Judah still being IBF or catch-weights. I thought perhaps Chavez but remembered his first title was a vacant WBC but the opponent was a good one though. Pernell Whitaker too but the WBC title he won at 135 was vacant but everything else taken from the champion.

Post Chavez/Whitaker beyond Tito I think the best I could come up with off the top was Rafael Marquez (beating long reigning champions in Tim Austin & Israel Vazquez) as far as only taking from a genuine champion and with no use of catch-weight. He beat the #1 guy in both divisions no questions asked and no promotional or political favoritism. Seems like everyone that's more than two divisions has either won an interim, a vacant or catch-weight at least once.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

In this modern era of multiple titles its very difficult to go on a multi-weight reign without vacant titles or without some B.S like Judah still being IBF or catch-weights. I thought perhaps Chavez but remembered his first title was a vacant WBC but the opponent was a good one though. Pernell Whitaker too but the WBC title he won at 135 was vacant but everything else taken from the champion.

Post Chavez/Whitaker beyond Tito I think the best I could come up with off the top was Rafael Marquez (beating long reigning champions in Tim Austin & Israel Vazquez) as far as only taking from a genuine champion and with no use of catch-weight. He beat the #1 guy in both divisions no questions asked and no promotional or political favoritism. Seems like everyone that's more than two divisions has either won an interim, a vacant or catch-weight at least once.

They’re really aren’t that many especially this millennium.

James Toney is another one; beat Michael Nunn 160, Iran Barkley 168 and then beat Vasily Jirov nearly a decade later for his Cruiserweight title.