By Ken Hissner: It has long been said that heavyweight champion Joe “The Brown Bomber” Louis, 66-3, of Detroit, MI, who had 25 title defenses were the most in boxing. That is right as far as the heavyweight division is concerned.

WBO Flyweight and WBO Super Flyweight champion Omar “El Huracan” Narvaez, 49-4-2, of Trelew, Chubut, Argentina, had 26 title defenses.

WIBF Flyweight, Super Flyweight, and Light Flyweight champion Regina Halmich, 54-1-1, of Germany, had 44 defenses but in looking at her record, you have to wonder about defenses against opponents with no pro fights.

You might ask, so did Floyd “Money” Mayweather in his last bout did the same, didn’t he?

Halmich won her first 8 fights against all opponents making their debut except one with a 0-1 record. In her ninth fight in April of 1995, she lost to southpaw Yvonne “The Terminator” Trevino, 1-1, of Peoria, AZ, for the vacant WIBF Flyweight title due to a cut on her left cheek. Trevino failed to defend her title, making it vacant.

In June, Halmich won the vacant title defeating Kim Messer, 0-0, over 10×2 rounds. She made 11 defenses against 9 0-0 opponents before moving up to super flyweight defeating Maria Rosa Tabbuso, 1-1-1, in April of 1998. She made one defense and dropped back to Flyweight.

In July 1999, Halmich won the Light Flyweight title defeating Erzsebet Borosi 0-0. After three defenses, she dropped back to Light Flyweight, defeating Michelle Sutcliffe 5-3. In April 2002, she defended against Anca Moise, 0-3. It goes on and on like this. Some 19 wins against 0-0 opponents and five wins against losing record opponents.

Others with 20 or more defenses were WBC Super Featherweight, WBA Lightweight, and WBC Light Welterweight champion Julio “J.C.” Chavez, 107-6-2, of Mexico, and WBC Mini and IBF Light Flyweight champion Ricardo “Finito” Lopez, 51-0-1, of Mexico each had 24 defenses.

Welterweight champion Cecilia “First Lady” Braekhus, 37-2, of Colombia and Norway, had 25 title defenses. Super Featherweight, Lightweight, Super Lightweight, and Welterweight champion Mayweather had 24 defenses.

Middleweight champion Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin, 42-2-1, of Karaganda, KAZ, and Heavyweight champion Wladimir “Dr. Steelhammer” Klitschko, 64-5, of Kyiv, UKR, Light Heavyweight and Cruiserweight champion Dariusz “Tiger” Michalczeweki, 48-2, of Gdans, POL, all had 23 defenses.