three months later, he was dethroned by hall of famer jimmy mclarnin in a first round knockout. corbett then moved up to the middleweight division. he scored wins over future light heavy champ gus lesnevich (tko 5), as well as hall of famers mickey walker, and billy conn. on february 22, 1938 he beat fred apostoli, winning the middleweight championship. on november 18 of that year, he challenged apostoli again, but was stopped in 8 rounds.