Cellini’s List of Ten of the Least Successful Heavyweight Champions of All Time While They Held Titles
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By Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini (Who else would it be by?)
The title of World Heavyweight Champion was once the greatest prize to hold in all of professional sports. The list of great champions includes legendary names such as Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Larry Holmes. The debate for decades has been over how to rank the all-time greats in the heavyweight division. However, ranking the bottom ten heavyweight champions of all-time is just as complex for boxing fans. Winning the championship in any professional sport should be regarded as a major accomplishment for any athlete. However, some of these champions put on great performances to win the belt only to follow up with horrible encores for the rest of their careers. The list includes those fighters who were at one time the heavyweight champion of the world, but were far from ever being considered great. How these fighters performed in defending their crown plays a significant part in their rankings, but overall records have a major impact as well.
10) Tommy “The Duke” Morrison, 48-3, 43 KO’s defeated George Foreman to win vacant WBO title in June of 1993. After one successful title defense, Morrison got destroyed in one round by Michael Bentt in October of the same year.
9) Ingemar Johansson, 26-2, 17 KO’s defeated Floyd Patterson by third round knockout to claim World Undisputed Heavyweight championship in September of 1958. However, in his second and third fights with Patterson (both for championship), Johansson was humbled twice with two brutal knock out losses.
8) Greg Page, 58-17-1, 48 KO’s won WBA Heavyweight title from Gerrie Coetzee with 8th round knockout, but proceeded to lose belt in 1st title defense to Tony “TNT” Tubbs. Page may be best remembered for knocking down Mike Tyson in sparring prior to “Iron” Mike’s fight with Douglas.
7) Tony “TNT Tubbs, 47-10, 25 KO’s won the WBA Heavyweight title in a “borefest” with Greg Page in April of 1985, but lost title to Tim Witherspoon in his 1st title defense by unanimous decision in January 1986.
6) “Terrible” Tim Witherspoon, 55-13-1, 38 KO’s won title from Tony Tubbs, but lost WBA Heavyweight championship belt to James “Bonecrusher” Smith in second defense by 1st round knockout.
5) James “Bonecrusher” Smith,44-17-1, 32 KO’s won title from Tim Witherspoon in 1st round ambush to take WBA Heavyweight crown in December of 1986, but followed up with 12 round unanimous decision loss to “Iron” Mike Tyson in 1st title defense in March of 1987.
4) Gerrie Coetzee, 33-6-1, 21 KO’s won the WBA version of title against Michael “Dynamite” Dokes in September of 1983. Coetzee succumbed to Greg Page in his first title defense in December of 1984. Despite having a crushing right hand, Coetzee never had the skills to be a dominate force in the division.
3) Buster Douglas, 46-6-1, 25 KO’s won the World Undisputed Heavyweight championship against “Iron” Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990 in the biggest upset in boxing history. Unfortunately, Douglas turned in one of his worst performances in his first title defense against Evander Holyfield and relinquished belts in the third round. Buster had all the tools to be the heavyweight champion but never had the heart to stay one.
2) Bruce Seldon, 40-8, 36 KO’s won the WBA Heavyweight title in April of 1995 over Tony Tucker. After making one successful title defense against Joe Hipp, Seldon was dismantled by Mike Tyson in less than one round to lose his title. The champion should have handed over the title at the weigh in because he never put up any resistance to the challenger. He was stopped in seven of his eight losses.
1) Leon Spinks, 26-17-1,14 KO’s upset an aging Muhammad Ali to win Undisputed Heavyweight championship in only his eighth pro fight on February 15,1978. Taking advantage of his youth, the challenger fought with too much energy for Ali in their first fight. In the rematch on September 15th later that year, Spinks was dominated by Ali and gave up his title with ease. Leon Spinks was never able to rise to the occasion again in his career as he did in winning the championship, and take too many beatings in the ring afterwards.
Former champions like Michael Spinks and Frank Bruno surrendered their titles with relative ease, but still had considerably successful careers compared to others on this list. The debate will continue as to who was really the worst world heavyweight champion of all-time.
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