Would've been nice to see him defend his heavyweight undisputed title once but in the four-belt era it's harder to keep them together. Especially with the IBF involved. There's quite a few former undisputed heavyweight champs that also didn't defend it including the last one we had.
I just want to hear Michael Buffer announce someone as Undefeated Undisputed Heavyweight Champion.
Liston beat Patterson in the rematch to become undisputed and then immediately lost the title against Cassius Clay/Ali in his very next fight. Became undisputed on 22 Jul 1963 and lost it on 25 Feb 1964.
True. The next best thing to that is hearing that Usyk was undefeated & undisputed cruiserweight champion in the Bellew fight. He defended it once and then vacated his WBA title when he moved up to heavyweight. His other 3 titles were vacated shortly after.
You're correct in that he initially became undisputed in the first Patterson fight but the era had just come to an end by his next fight. So, he was undisputed across two eras (NYSAC–NBA & WBA–WBC) but he's credited with 0 title defenses. This is just a transitional technicality.
Riddick bowe had a couple defenses against weak opposition before losing to Evander in their rematch. I think Lewis won a couple defenses too but not sure.
Bowe did have world title defenses but he never defended the undisputed title. Back in his day, the three-belt era, this meant simultaneously defending the WBA, WBC & IBF titles. Only a month after he became undisputed he infamously trashed (vacated) his WBC title to avoid Lewis. Lewis himself never defended all 3 titles, either. Had he not been screwed against Holyfield in the first fight, which they called a draw, then he'd have 1 undisputed title defense.
oh, that's what you mean, yes, you're correct. Tyson had a good spell with all three belts, its hard to keep them all together.
It is very hard to keep them from being fragmented again. Initially the IBF wanted to strip Usyk after just 2 weeks of winning their belt. He petitioned them to keep it for the Fury rematch but something must've changed his mind to vacate it. He still holds the other 3 belts though. For now at least. Yeah, Mike had a total of 6 undisputed title defenses in the three-belt era. That's impressive.
well, might be a waste of energy trying to keep all those titles together these days.
Pretty much is a waste of energy. Once a fighter becomes undisputed heavyweight champ their name is forever in the history books. The winner of Joshua vs Dubois would've been his IBF mandatory. That's not very appealing since he's already beaten them both. Joshua twice.
