If Martin Gets Trashed....

Let's say within 4 rounds and its pretty brutal (which I think we all believe is a very real possibility) would Martin go down as one of the worst Heavyweight champions, or even the worst Heavyweight champion ever?

Fought the square root of no one to get the title shot, I saw him less than a year ago on the Klitschko - Jennings undercard and he was fighting Tom Dallas. A man that got knocked out by David Price in two rounds. Less than a year ago and now he's champion. Wins the title off of Glazkov (who is mediocre himself) doing his knee in, then let's say he does get blown away by AJ, he's gotta rank up there, surely?

Bruce Seldom would be a decent call, but who ranks as worse? Carnera?

Leon Spinks.

Seldon took the money and a dive against Tyson - that I have no doubt - but he did defend his title once, against Joe Hipp. However, there's also the "evergreen" Shannon Briggs who won the WBO bauble with a last second KO against Serguei Lyakhovich (in Lyakhovich's first defence) and then lost it in his next outing versus Sultan Ibragimov in one of the most snooze-inducing fights ever seen. Briggs was ridiculously heavy for this fight and plodded rather than pounded. I wonder if Ibragimov was saying "Lets go champ!" in every clinch???

Briggs was pretty poor, as was Seldon. Douglas wasn't exactly great in his first defence either, but he gets a pass for beating Tyson in his pomp. Spinks took his chance and won the lottery. Frank Bruno wasn't exactly what could be described as a "Great" HW champ, beating McCall on points before surrendering meekly to Iron Mike. Stiverne beat Arreola and was then outclassed by Wilder - who most on here rate rather poorly. Tucker beat Douglas and then was outpointed by Tyson - but at least he didn't fold. And of course there's the almost forgotten Michael Bentt who poleaxed Tommy before being KO'd by Herbie Hide of all people, but unfortunately did end up in hospital and being forced to retire as a result.

My "top" 5 of worst heavy champs would probably look something like this:

5. Bruno
4. Stiverne
3. Seldon
2. Lyakhovich
1. Briggs

Not right to say Seldom took a dive against Tyson. ..He lost his bottle....it happened against Tyson...

Valuev will always be my worst heavy champion.....Michael Bent runs Leon close if not surpasses him..

I think we need to differentiate between title holders and champions. The worst champion in history is probably Marvin Hart or Shannon Briggs.

As for title holders (paper champs), well, God knows but the likes of Frans Botha, Sultan Ibragimov, Ruslan Chagaev,  Nikolai Valuev, Herbie Hide and Francesco Damiani take some beating.

Ah here, theres far worse than Bruno. I could name ten worse champions than Bruno from the last 10 years alone.

Undoubtedly, he's the worst heavyweight champion in history - Useless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzFR2cgLjSI

He's a mug and Joshua will walk through him. Then we will have to suffer the media circus.

When I pick Leon Spinks as the worst heavyweight champ ever, I'm picking him due to his whole career. He didn't deserve a title fight in the first place and apart from getting another shot at the title against Larry Holmes, accomplished nothing of note with the rest of his career, ending up with a record of 26-17-3.

Imagine that it was one of the best eras in heavyweight boxing and a guy with a record of 6-0-1 gets to fight the great Muhammad Ali. There would be an uproar on this forum if Wlad when he was champion had fought a challenger with such a poor record.

No way does Bruno deserve to be on a "worst five champs" list!

Rahman, Ruiz both worse than Bruno. Maskev.. Samuel Peter.. Lamon Brewster. Valuev. Herbie Hide. Not forgetting the heayweight version of Roy Jones.

Herbie Hide & Michael Bentt, 2 of the worst World champions in Heavyweight history, and to think they fought each other for the title.

Who is the worst Lineal champion? I don't know about worst boxer, but Leon spinks was a novice.

Also Douglas was a disgrace against Holyfield. If only he turned up in shape. Holyfield would most likely of won, but that would of been a good fight.

Primo Carnera was the worst 'lineal' champion as far as i'm concerned.

Actually he was another fighter that came into mind.

You can't have Bruno as worst ever champion! Alright his defence against Tyson was pretty awful but based on his entire career he was well worthy of the strap. You can't say that about useless puddings like Valuev!

Audley for his WBF trinket.

Drop the mic......

David Haye, won it controversially against one of the worst Heavyweights of all time, defended it against an over the hill Ruiz, and Audrey Harrison (lol) then went to Germany for the biggest fight of his life and blamed the loss on his injured baby toe.

I don't think you could possibly get a more embarrassing HW campaign than that.

At least Martin is taking on Joshua as his first defence, the aforementioned was a fraud who hid behind his HW title fighting no marks for money.

I say fairplay to Charles Martin, and he is willing to travel for his first defence too.

More champs like this would allow for the biggest fights.

In terms of Haye's record - yes poor champion. But a greater talent than any of the other names mentioned... shame he wasted it.

Yep, fair play to Charles Martin. Risky first defence.