Legends Sports Universe Boxing Federation (Alltime boxing universe using Title Bout)

[GForce22]

The Legends Sports Universe is a collection of sports dynasties I run that I am just now getting posted on its own website and am doing broadcasts for on a YouTube channel as I find myself getting back into the hobby. The links for those are in my signature.

Each dynasty is run in an alltime, cross-era format bringing together the greats - and coulda been greats - from history.

The Legends Sports Universe Boxing Federation uses Title Bout boxing. It began with any fighter who won his first title either prior to 1920 or between 2000 and 2010.

At the end of each calendar year fighters who won their first championship in a 3-year range are introduced to the universe. So far, champs have been introduced from between 1933 and 1936, 1965 and 1968, 1929 and 1932, and 1949 and 1952. The next group to enter is champions between 1981 and 1984, right when I really started getting into boxing, so I'm excited for this crop - which includes Thomas Hearns, Julio Cesar Chavez and the criminally underrated Mike McCallum among others - to make its way into the universe.

I started this universe all the way back in 2009. I didn't touch it for years but have recently gotten back into the game. So that's why it's a bit behind the other sports on LSU with respect to dates. The LSUBF's "current" year is 2013. I just didn't want to restart it.

I'll post each division's title history to get you caught up and then will pick up the LSUBF in January 2013!

[GForce22]

Heavyweight

The Legends Sports Universe Boxing Federation's heavyweight title is the crown jewel of the LSUBF. From the initial pool, starting with champions prior to 1920 and between 2000 and 2010, the four fighters to qualify for the initial heavyweight championship tournament were Vitali Klitschko, Samuel Peter, Jack Dempsey and John L. Sullivan.

After Dempsey obliterated Peter with a second-round knockout, Klitschko found himself locked in a war with Sullivan that would end stunningly when Sullivan, up on two cards and even on the third in the 11th, is disqualified for a flagrant foul. Dempsey would become the first champion after stopping Klitschko on cuts in the 9th.

From there, the strap has had an eventful course.

Klitschko knocked out Sergei Lyakovich in his first defense, then took out James Corbett in the 15th round. But Klitschko would lose the belt to Sullivan by 9th round TKO before regaining the title from Sullivan later that year via a 6th round TKO, ending that trilogy for the time being.

The next year, Klitschko would defend twice, stopping Dempsey in the fifth and then Corbett in the 13th.

The stunner happened the following April, when Chris Byrd would cut Klitschko badly and shockingly won the strap. His reign was short-lived as his first defense was a rematch with Klitschko, and Dr. IronFist would eviscerate Byrd en route to a 7th round TKO to regain the title once again.

In the past few months, several terrific fighters who weren't in the LSUBF at its inception have worked their way into the Top 10 rankings as new challenges loom: Slots 2 through 5 are currently held by Max Schmeling, Jersey Joe Walcott, Rocky Marciano and Joe Frazier. That's quite a line of formidable challengers, to say nothing of the fact Dempsey has worked himself back to the Number One contender's slot, meaning an eventful next couple of years for Klitschko to say the least.

[GForce22]

Light-Heavyweight

The preliminary bouts to build records landed the LSUBF with a pair of undefeated fighters heading into the four-man tournament to crown the first light-heavyweight champion.

Philadelphia Jack O’Brien emerged 16-0 with 7 KOs, while Gabriel Campillo achieved an 11-0 mark, though with only four knockouts. Tomasz Adamek (11-2, 8 KO) and Georges Carpentier (10-1, 6 KO) rounded out the field.

Antonio Tarver, Jack Dillon and Glen Johnson hadn’t fought the requisite 10 bouts to qualify, so they would have to wait to earn their chances down the line.

Adamek knocked out Campillo in the 7th round of their semifinal matchup, while O’Brien picked apart a very frustrated Carpentier who, clearly down in the fight in the 10th, headbutted O’Brien to draw a disqualification, sending O’Brien into the title match.

In the title fight, O’Brien would weather a pair of knockdowns and take Adamek into the deep end of the pool, where he couldn’t stay afloat. On the strength of a clean sweep of rounds 10-14, O’Brien is crowned the first LSUBF Light Heavyweight champion by unanimous decision, 145-139, 145-139, 144-140.

O”Brien’s first defense would come the following June, when he would drop the belt via majority decision in a terrific bout to Dillon, 144-142 (x2), 143-143.

O”Brien would also break his hand in the fight, sidelining him and putting and possible rematch on hold.

Dillon meanwhile would take a unanimous decision over Jack Root in a successful first defense before being stunningly obliterated by Zsolt Erdei in a 6th round TKO defeat.

Erdei would then defend against Tarver, who would win the belt via TKO in the ninth of a bout that started with Tarver putting the champ on the canvas twice.

Tarver wouldn’t defend for 10 months, and when he did it would be to give Erdei his rematch. Tarver would take a unanimous decision to keep the belt, and then dominate Glencoffe Johnson three months later in what would become a technical unanimous decision after a gruesome cut to Johnson caused by a butt caused the fight to be stopped.

Most recently, Tarver defended against O”Brien, getting his first shot since losing the title two years prior. With the cards even through five, referee Kenny Bayless becomes the most hated man in the room when he disqualifies Tarver for an intentional head butt, putting the title back in the hands of its first holder, Philadelphia Jack O’Brien!

Tarver is due a rematch in the next five months, and will meet both the mandatory rematch and #1 contender requirements for O’Brien. From there, it will be interesting to see where O’Brien heads if he retains, as there are several up and comers recently into the Top 10, including Joe Knight (9-1-1, 7 KO), a resurgent Bob Foster (9-6, 8 KO) and a much talked about young fighter by the name of Archie Moore.

[steelerfan]

I'll be following along. Thanks for sharing!

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[GForce22]

Quote: Originally Posted by steelerfan

I'll be following along. Thanks for sharing! Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Thanks! I've checked in on yours as well...good stuff!

GH

[GForce22]

Middleweight

The Legends Sports Universe Boxing Federation's middleweight title was contested by an odd mix given the eligible fighters. Billy Papke faced Kelly Pavlik in one semifinal, while Nonpareil Jack Dempsey fought Frank Klaus in the other.

Stanley Ketchel didn't fight enough by the time the tournament came about, so despite being a perfect 8-0 he wasn't allowed entry. Bob Fitzsimmons had piled up on tomato cans and was ranked fifth, missing the cut as well.

Papke would top Pavlik by unanimous decision, and Dempsey - trailing on all cards, would knock Klaus out at 2:46 of the 12th and final round of their semifinal match, setting up Dempsey vs Papke for the Middleweight crown.

A seesaw battle would tilt toward Papke late as he'd drop Dempsey twice in the 10th and once in the 11th before the fight was stopped and Papke declared the first LSUBF middleweight champion.

Looming all along was Fitzsimmons, and to a greater extent, Ketchel.

Papke dealt with Fitzsimmons first, defeating him by unanimous decision in his first defense before wiping out Guillermo Carriles in his second with a second round TKO. He would then face Pavlik in a rematch and Paviik would again give him fits but again fall short, stopped by TKO in the 14th round.

By November, Ketchel had reached the 10 fights needed to be ranked, and Papke was left to deal with the fight everyone wanted. Ketchel would put Papke on the canvas, but Papke would recover to stop Ketchel, dealing him his first loss with a ninth round TKO, raising his own mark to 25-0-1. He would then go on to stop Fitzsimmons by TKO in the 13th in a rematch before eviscerating Jermain Taylor in two rounds later that year.

Fifteen months after their first fight, Ketchel would get his rematch with Papke and this contest became a war. Pape would get a point deduction and be knocked down three times before the bout was stopped in the fifteenth of what to this day remains Ketchel's finest performance.

Ketchel would have a year to give Papke his mandatory rematch, but he'd wait only six months, in the interim stopping Frank Klaus via 13th-round TKO. Ketchel would emerge victorious in the rubbermatch, earning a close but unanimous decision 144-141, 143-142, 143-141.

Ketchel would then turn to Fitzsimmons, who had never left the Top 5 rankings. An accidental butt in the 9th round of the tightly contested battle would lead to a gash that would get significantly worse in the 11th round, bringing a stoppage to the bout. When they went to the cards, Bob Fitzsimmons, the forgotten man to a large degree, was crowned the new LSUBF middleweight champion, 96-93, 95-94, 95-94. An irate Ketchel now sits awaiting his rematch due sometime in the next 10 months.

Keep an eye out on the surging Jake LaMotta and Canadian Lou Brouillard, who each just broke into the Top 10.

[GForce22]

Jr. Middleweight

When the preliminary fights to set the stage for the initial tournament to determine the LSUBF’s first Jr. Middleweight champion were complete, the division was the only one to have THREE undefeated fighters: Sergio Martinez, Kassim Ouma and Winky Wright. Alejandro Garcia would get the fourth slot.

Martinez would fight Garcia in one semifinal while Ouma and Wright would square off in the other.

Garcia would shock many when, in an action-packed battle, Garcia would knock Martinez out with seconds left in the fifth round to earn his place in the final.

Wright would put together an absolute virtuoso performance against Ouma on his way to a dominant unanimous decision victory, 117-110, 117-110, 116-111 and face Garcia for the title.

Wright dominated the early parts of the early rounds and Garcia would respond later in the round over the first several. But gradually, Wright’s accuracy and movement made Garcia’s comebacks less powerful, and Wright would put a worn down Garcia down twice, the second time for good, in the ninth to become the first LSUBF Jr. Middleweight champion.

Wright would stake claim to being the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world over the next two years, successfully defending against Joachim Alcine (KO9), Martinez (KO3), Ouma (KO11), Jair Da Silva (TKO7), Travis Simms (UD15) and Sergio Mora (UD15).

But the following January, Garcia would get a rematch, and chaos would ensue. With Wright leading 87-83, 87-83, 88-82, and with Garcia’s left eye badly swollen, the fight is stopped for a gash over Wright’s eye after he weather’s a pair of blistering shots from Garcia and paws at the cut, though Wright never went down. Garcia would get the TKO victory to hand an irate Wright his first defeat and hand Garcia the title.

Garcia would make a successful unanimous decision defense against Ouma and then fight Martinez, with Wright a mandatory over the next several months. But Garcia would never get to the Wright rematch, as Martinez would defeat him by majority decision to take the title.

Because Garcia lost the belt before Wright got his rematch, Martinez had the option of giving Garcia a rematch or defending against Wright and leaving Garcia out in the cold. Martinez chose Garcia, whom he would stop by TKO in the 10th round to retain the title and meet his rematch requirement, leaving Wright to wait.

Wright has been surpassed as the #1 contender by upstart Nino Benvenuti. Martinez must defend against the #1 contender sometime over the next 10 months, so it will be interesting to see the paths Benvenuti and Wright take to lock up that #1 spot and how Martinez plans his course to defend.

[GForce22]

Welterweight

The chain of the Legends Sports Universe Boxing Federation Welterweight title began with a terrific title bout in which Vernon Forrest survived a fourth-round knockdown from Paul Williams and took advantage of a cut that seemed to alter Williams’ style over the final five rounds as Forrest earned a close but unanimous victory.

Forrest would drop the strap in his first defense, a 12th round TKO loss to the man Williams stopped in the semifinal, Tommy Ryan.

Ryan and Williams would get very well acquainted over the next two years.

Ryan would lose his first defense to Williams via a 9th round TKO, but regain the title in a rematch three months later by unanimous decision.

The rapid succession of changes left Forrest out in the cold for a while until Ryan gave him his title shot eight months after regaining the title from Williams.

Ryan stopped Forrest by TKO when he knocked him down three times in the 14th. Three months later, Ryan would coast to a unanimous decision win over Ted “Kid” Lewis before knocking out Keddy Burke in the 8th the following February.

But in May, Williams would get another shot at the belt and defeat Ryan by unanimous decision in dominant fashion, dropping Ryan in the 10th and 14th on his way to a 147-138, 146-138, 145-139 decision.

Ryan would get a mandatory rematch for the pair’s fifth fight in the span of three years, and it would end in hotly debated fashion, the judges calling it 142-141 Williams, 142-141 Ryan, and 142-142...a draw.

Williams retained and Ryan will have to wait his turn before he gets another crack.