If you've been on almost any boxing forum recently you'll have struggled to have avoided the name of Ali Raymi, the Yemeni Minimumweight destroyer who recently set a world record for most opening round KO's to begin a boxing career.

Raymi, who scored his 20th straight opening round victory this past weekend, broke the previous record of Tyrone Brunson, who himself had amassed 19 opening round victories to begin his career.

Whilst some on forums are against celebrating Raymi's achievement I'll admit I'm a big fan of it. Although I'll admit I'm being an ass I love this as a big "F-You" to Tyrone Brunson who's own record seems to have been done merely to spite Edwin Valero who of course had become an internet darling on his own run of opening round stoppages.

Arguably the most interesting things about Raymi's record is that all 20 of his fights have come against unbeaten men and none of those men he has beaten have gone on to fight again. It appears that Raymi isn't just a streak destroyer but also, a career destroyer!

In boxing the weirdest records often belong to journeymen who have either run up a lot of losses or done something equally bizarre. For example we'd like to introduce you the Heavyweight journeyman Zuri Lawrence (24-15-4-1).

Lawrence, who fought between 1994-2009 fought an impressive 43 times a professional and fought a list of established opponents including the likes of Maurice Harris (in Lawrence's debut), Darroll Wilson, David Bostice, Paolo Vidoz, Tony Thompson, Ray Austin, Timo Hoffman, Sultan Ibragimov, Jameel McCline, Calvin Brock, Dominick Guinn, Hasim Rahman and Albert Sosnowski. In fact impressively Lawrence actually Vidoz and Sosnowski and drew with Austin which showed he could box.

Of course he wouldn't be on this site for his record unless there was something weird about it and there was. In 24 wins Lawrence failed to score a single stoppage. Sure he could box, but it appeared that he simply could not punch.

Whilst he failed to score any stoppages himself, sadly his opponents weren't so nice and he was stopped 8 times in his career (and surprisingly had 11 bouts finish early including a 2 DQ victories and a No Contest).

Despite standing at an impressive 6'4" and around 235lbs Lawrence appears to have been a bit of a pussycat inside the ring ropes.

Whilst researching a piece for another site I stumbled upon obscure Japanese Minimumweight Yamato Uchinono (2-2-5, 1). Whilst his record looked weird from the off with 5 draws from 9 bouts, I was more surprised when I actually went through his record in detail.

Uchinono debuted in May 2010 and stopped fellow debutant Daiki Kusuhara in 3 rounds. Over his following 6 fights however Uchinono scored 5 majority decisions, each of them over 4 rounds and covering a period of 2 years.

The only fight that broke would would have surely been the weirdest run of draws in boxing history was a 4th round TKO loss to Takayuki Teraji in July 2011, which it's self was followed by 4 of the 5 draws (inlcuding 2 against unbeaten fighters). This meant after 7 fights Uchinono's record read 1-1-5 (1) a remarkably strange record.

The 4-fight draw streak came to an end in October 2012 as Uchinono claimed a decision victory over Ryota Iwashita (who had coincidentally drawn with Yuma Mutsu, 2 weeks after Uchinono had scored the 2nd of his draws). Sadly Uchinono would suffer his second career loss last December as rising unbeaten prospect Hiroya Yamamoto stopped him in 4 rounds.

*Accurate at time of writing

From the title of this post you may very well think it was how long I last in bed but thankfully you'd be wrong. Instead it's the total time of Clarence Joseph's (1-0-0-1, 1) boxing debut which took place in February 2011 when Joseph faced Joseph Benjamin (then 4-24-2-2,3).

The bout, which took place at the 200 Peachtree in Atlanta, Georgia may well be the shortest bout known to man. Oddly however neither man won as a clash of heads after just seconds (literally) spelled a very early end to the proceedings with the referee quickly waving the bout off.

Sadly the only footage of the fight that is available is slowed down and part of a conspiracy theory, though it's still worth watching (see below) and is thanks to MrSplitttpersonality.

Since this bout Joseph has fought once scoring a 55 second KO over Eduardo Anduro, whilst Benjamin has scored 7 losses and 3 wins. Coincidentally it was the second successive No Contest for Benjamin who had had a 2nd round No Contest (due to a head clash) with Allen Williams (who was, like Joseph, a debutant).

On May 8th 1992 a little known Croatian journeyman called Dinko Porobija (0-14) fought for the final time as a professional, ending a career that had began in 1988. The man he faced that day fought only once, it was an Austrian man called Felix Baumgartner (1-0, 1).

Now you're almost certainly going "I recognise that name" (and probably "I recognise that picture") and you'd be right. The same man who made his professional boxing debut stopping Dinko Porobija was the man watched by the world as he parachuted from the edge of space.

Although Felix's boxing career (which lasted just a round) was nothing memorable, his now infamous "Red Bull Stratos" stunt was something that will live long in the memory of everyone who saw it. So whilst I'm on the subject of records, Felix currently holds, as we know, the highest parachute jump, the quickest free fall jump, the highest altitude jump, the highest manned balloon flight and the most watch simulcast in youtube history.

He also holds the record as the most famous non-boxing Austrian Boxer of all time!

Felix's boxrec can be found here.

We at weirdboxing.info love journeymen, they are the lifeblood of our sport and the men willing to step in at little notice to save the show. They are the men who don't mind a loss, in fact many journeymen are proud just to be part of the sport win or lose. Despite the need for journeymen no one in the sport likes to be known as a tomato can or a bum-a professional loser if you will. Though in former Romanian Alexandru Manea we may have found the ultimate "Professional loser" in professional boxing history.

Alexandru Manea made his professional debut in September 2000 losing a 4 round decision to Austrian Middleweight Gotthard Hinteregger. Some 11 years later and after 53 fights Manea hung up his gloves with the bizarre record of 0-53. Yes 0 wins 53 losses. A record we believe could well be the "worst" record with out a single win in professional boxing.

Although most boxing fans won't have heard of Manea he has fought some recognisable opponents most notably Arthur Abraham the former IBF Middleweight Champion. Though others have included former European Light Middleweight contender Hussein Bayram, current world ranked Light Middleweight Sebastien Madani (who is the WBC #35 ranked fighter), former WBO "interim" title challenger Andras Galfi and former Julio Cesar Chavez Jr opponent Tobia Giuseppe Loriga.

Amazingly despite 53 losses Manea's career has taken him through out almost all of mainland europe including Spain, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Belgium, Poland and The Netherlands. Shockingly not once did Manea fight in his homeland meaning he really did live up to the title of "journeyman".

Through out the history of boxing we've had some bizarre records made for one reason or another but for me the most bizarre is the record held by little known Mexican Arturo Mayan who holds the record for the shortest career of any world title challenger at just 90 seconds.

Mayan would be the first challenger to Puerto Rican Alex Sanchez (who had won the belt just weeks earlier) and would be shown to be completely inept almost from the opening bell. It didn't take long for Mayan to turn his back on the champion forcing referee Ismael W. Fernandez to wave the bout off and effectively end Mayan's career with a record of 0-1.

Whilst Mayan's career may have been one of the very shortest and least memorable in title hisotry Sanchez himself went on to a have fruitful career. Sanchez would defend his title 5 more times before running into the legendary Ricardo “Finito” Lopez in a WBO/WBC unification bout. Sadly after being stopped by Lopez Sanchez was never the same fighter winning only 6 of his following 13 to leave his record at 31-8-1 (21).

In the history of boxing only 1 world champion has ever finished his career with more losses than wins, that man was former WBA Light Flyweight champion Francisco Quiroz (11-15-1-1, 5). Not only was he an anomaly in terms of his record at the end of his career but also his record when he ultimately got his world title opportunity in 1984. In fact it's fair to say that Quiroz has one of strangest careers of any fighter.

Quiroz started his career fighting in the capital of his homeland (The Dominican Republic), the city of Santo Domingo in the south of the island. Whilst fighting in Santo Domingo Quiroz recorded 6 wins between 1978 and 1980 as he beat the limited local opposition.

Following on from his good start Quiroz would leave his homeland and begin fighting in the much harsher boxing environment of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was here that Quiroz suffered the first loss of his career as he was out pointed by local fighter Ramon L Perez. This loss started a major slide for Quiroz who fell to 6-10-0-1 (1) with losses coming in Puerto Rico, Colombia, The Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Amongst the losses were two TKO losses to future world title challenger Ramon Antonio Nery (one coming in a national Flyweight title bout), one to future world champion Bebis Rojas, one to former world title challenger Jose Reinaldo Becerra, one to former (and future) world champion Rafael Orono and one to future world champion Israel Contreras. Meaning 6 of his 10 losses came to men who fought for a world title with 3 of the losses coming to one time champions.

Quiroz rebuilt his career following the string of tough losses stopping Oscar Bolivar in the 8th round of a rematch of one of his losses, this win was Quiroz's first in over 2 years. Quiroz would then win 2 of his next 3 bouts, including stopping former title challenger Rodolfo Rodriguez and then out pointing Jose Reinaldo Becerra (in a rematch). Those two wins helped earn Quiroz a chance at the WBA Light Flyweight champion Lupe Madera who had won the title just 10 months earlier.

Going into the big title bout Quiroz's record stood at a rather poor 9-10-1-1(3) a stark contrast to Madera who was 37-14-1 (23) (who had himself once been considered a journeyman before eventually proving his worth and winning a world title). Quiroz managed to eventually break down the champion in round 9 dropping him hard with a combination that caused the referee to wave the bout off as Madera was rising. As you can see in the video below (of the full fight) the crowd went crazy in celebration for Quiroz. This was the last fight of Madera's career.

Sadly Quiroz's reign didn't last long as he made only a solitary successful defence stopping Victor Sierra in 2 rounds in Panama just months after winning the belt. Quiroz would lose in his second defense the following year as he was narrowly out pointed in his US debut by Joey Olivo.

Following his title loss Quiroz's career would tail spin with 4 straight losses, each coming in a different country (Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico) before he hung up his gloves in 1990. Sadly Quiroz was killed less than 3 years later in a night club brawl aged just 45.

Of Quiroz's 11 career wins 6 came in the Dominican Republic, 4 came in Venezuela and 1, his only title defense, came in Panama. His losses however came in 7 countries (Puerto Rico, Colombia, The Dominican Republic, Venezuela, The USA, Argentina and Mexico) and it's his those, more than his wins, that have made him one of boxing's more forgotten “World Champions”. It seems only fitting to include him in this section of our website.

The video below is thanks to joeji42