Mike McTigue's Light Heavyweight Championship Run

[Obama]

It's an interesting run. He wins the title from Battling Siki, loses a newspaper decision to the great Tommy Loughran, wins a newspaper decision in the rematch, robbed the great Young Stribling to a draw in an official title bout (literally, Stribling was Champion for 1 hour), lost a newspaper decision in the return fight, beat up two nobodies Frank Carpenter and Jimmy King, lost a newspaper decision to the great Mickey Walker, then finally lost his world title to HOFer Paul Berlenbach in an official bout.

What I'm actually wondering is how the hell did Berlenbach get an official title fight before Stribling (again), Walker, or the the best LHW at the time Gene Tunney? Gene actually never got a shot at the World title period. What's up with that?

For a frame of reference McTigue is LHW Champion from 1923-03-17 to 1925-05-30.

[TheGreatA]

I've heard his title run was a bit of a sham. He probably shouldn't have received the decision over Battling Siki in the first place.

In truth McTigue was probably not one of the better light heavyweights of the era, but he had more longevity than most fighters. Arguably his best run was in between the loss of the title and the embarrassing knockout loss to Mickey Walker. He was around 35 years old by then, but scored wins over Berlenbach, Flowers and Johnny Risko.