Unbreaking Bad – Some of Boxing’s Worst Records

One of the oldest sports in the world is boxing, but while its exact origins remain hard to trace, records from the modern age continue to thrill and delight fans of the hard-hitting sport. Some of those records seem implausible or near-impossible to beat.

It is easy to roll off the names of some of the greatest fighters from the history of the sport. Muhammad Ali, Sonny Listen, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano all pop to mind.

Boxers are some of the toughest athletes on the planet, putting their bodies on the line for the sport they love. While punters looking for betting options at bookmakers, for instance, recommended by  Legalbet, a service which studies betting sites and their offers, will likely focus on winners, there is an entire other aspect to the biggest records in boxing. Some can be impressively bad.

The Positive Boxing Records

Some of boxing’s most famous records are known to most people as they highlight the sport’s greatest moments and fighters. Joe Louis’s brilliant 25 title defences is one of the most outstanding ones, for example. Floyd Mayweather, who retired with a 50-0 record, racked up a stunning 23 victories against title-holding opponents during his career.

Heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano retired with an unbeaten 49-0 record, while no fighter has held more titles across different weight classes than Manny Pacquiao. But what about the other side of the coin, the records which are less than perfect? Much less.

Most Career Losses

A boxing record is not necessarily focused on a positive aspect of the sport. Take Kristian Laight who hung up his gloves in 2018. Laight lost 277 of his 300 fights, which took him past the previous record held by the ironically nicknamed Reggie ‘All-Time Great’ Strickland. Laight, who lived up to his own great nickname ‘Mr Reliable’ and was a journeyman in the sport, and despite all those losses, remarkably only suffered five stoppages in his career.

Eric Crumble’s Many, Many KO Blows

American fighter Eric Crumble was prolific but for all the wrong reasons. You hear a lot about boxers having a strong chin, meaning that they are hard to knock out. Despite trying his hand across many different weight classes, Crumble couldn’t find his winning touch. He fought 32 times, and aside from one No Contest result, Crumble lost all of his other fights. Making the record worse is that every defeat Crumble suffered, was by a First or Second Round knockout.

Loser Of The Longest Fight

This is a boxing record that just is very likely to get beaten. Back before the turn of the 20th century, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke went at it in a fight that lasted more than seven hours. Why? Under the rules of the fight, the only winning method was by a KO.

So the duo somehow went on and on across 110 rounds until the referee called it a No Contest, with neither fighter picking up the win. Just how brutal was the ordeal? Well, Burke broke every bone in both hands and was laid up for six weeks afterwards, so was arguably the big loser.

Deakin’s Losing Streak

In 2006 British Super Lightweight fighter Robin Deakin got the first pro-win under his belt after more than 70 amateur fights. But that was one of the few highlights that can be taken from his career, as Deakin lost his next 51 consecutive bouts. In 2015 “Britain’s Worst Boxer” ended his losing streak with a victory over Denis Kornilov. Deakin called it quits in 2018 with two wins in his 55-fight pro career.

Fastest Modern Knockout Losses

Damon Reed and Andrew Golota are not the type of household names in boxing that many people can relate to. But they boast a joint record that is going to take some beating. They share the record for suffering the quickest-ever KO in pro boxing at just 0:52 of the First Round.

In 1998 Reed was stopped by Herbie Hide, breaking the previous record of 0:53 set by Johnny Davis in 1994 against Joe Louis (still the record stoppage time in a title fight). Then in 2005, Lamon Brewster influenced a quick defeat on Golota, to match Reed’s time.

The Bads Are Great

We will always wax lyrical about the legends of boxing such as Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Robinson. But the above list shows another very important part of the sport. Without such journeymen, who spend long hours as amateurs and bruising defeats as pros, the sport arguably wouldn’t be what it is without them. They are the grinders, the fodder used for prep-fights, and the foundation of the sport from which the superstars can rise.