Dundee aimed frequently at an injured eye, which Walker had gotten in training prior to the match. The referee stopped the bout 2:53 into the eighth when bleeding from Walker's injured eye and the battering he had taken made it impossible for him to continue. The win against Walker spotlighted Dundee's ascension to the top ranks of welterweight contenders. In an important early career win, Dundee defeated Jack Zivic in a ten round points decision on October 15, 1926 before a crowd of 12,000 at Madison Square Garden. Dundee was given seven rounds, with two to Zivic, and one even. Dundee boxed carefully against a well known opponent, delivering hard rights to the body, and left hooks to the jaw. He fought through the frequent clinches of Zivic, and fought in close when necessary on the breaks. Eddie Roberts fell to Dundee in a decisive ten round unanimous decision on January 14, 1927 before a crowd of 18,000 at Madison Square Garden. Roberts took frequent blows to the body that exhausted him, and helped give Dundee an edge. Dundee was down briefly in the fourth from a right cross and may have been close to a knockout, but recovered and fought back gamely in the remaining rounds. The Associated Press gave Dundee eight rounds and Roberts two. In a previous match on December 4, 1926, Dundee lost in a first round technical knockout to Roberts after he was floored four times in the first. Dundee defeated Pete Latzo for the world welterweight title on June 3, 1927, at New York's Polo Grounds, winning in a fifteen round majority decision before one of his largest audiences, an impressive crowd of 30,000. In a fairly decisive win, the Associated Press gave Dundee ten of the fifteen rounds, building his largest points margin in the later rounds. Latzo started strong, looking best in the first, second, fourth, and twelfth, but took brutal body punishment, particularly to the kidneys, through much of the bout. By the tenth, gaining confidence and sensing victory, Dundee went to Latzo's head as well as his body with greater frequency. Several reporters attributed Latzo's lack of endurance in the later rounds to his difficulty making the 147 pound welterweight limit. Dundee fought a peculiar bout with former world light welterweight champion Pinky Mitchell on August 11, 1927 in Milwaukee that was declared a No Contest, and discontinued in the sixth round for stalling. The Wisconsin Boxing Commission barred both boxers from competing in their state until January 1, 1928.