Try as they might, some high-quality fighters aren't quite able to get over the hump and win a world title.

Scaling the mountaintop requires more than just pushing the division's best close — a harsh reality personified by Ruben Castillo, who lost all four of his world title attempts.

He ran into a murderers' row in the 1980s and was never able to achieve what many predicted for him, though a handful have had more opportunities than the Mexican great.

Israel Gonzalez (32-5-2, 12 KOs) will make his fifth world title attempt Monday when facing Kenshiro Teraji for the vacant WBO junior bantamweight championship.

He has 12-round decision defeats in all four appearances across a four-and-a-half year span, and now gets another shot against an unpredictable proposition in Teraji (25-2, 16 KOs).

Jerwin Ancajas, Kal Yafai, Roman Gonzalez and most recently pound-for-pound star Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez did the damage at the 29-year-old's expense, though "Jiga" hasn't let setbacks deter him from continuing to dream.

Teraji, a two-division champion who won and defended The Ring title at 108 pounds before moving up in 2024, has had an outstanding career.

However he is also 34, will box at a career-heaviest (114.25 pounds) and potentially past his vintage best.

Gonzalez is younger, has the physical advantages with height and reach in his favor, but will that be enough? This presents perhaps his best chance to become champion in an ever-changing division left vacant by Rodriguez's recent bantamweight move.

Before then, here's a look at five fighters who've been given multiple title shots and fallen short.

Flyweight and featherweight: 0-5

The excellent Japanese fighter first lost a 15-round split decision against Thailand's Pone Kingpetch in June 1961, before jumping up to featherweight and being stopped for the second time in his career by Sugar Ramos (TKO6) in March 1964.

He gave Vicente Saldivar a tough first fight (UD15) in August 1966,, but the same couldn't be said five months later in their rematch (TKO7). When the Mexican retired, Seki was matched with another perennial contender in Howard Winstone to fill the WBC vacancy, though found himself stopped on cuts in the ninth round of what would prove his final appearance in January 1968.

Junior lightweight: 0-4-1

The Venezuelan was stopped by WBC 130-pound titleholder Alexis Arguello (TKO 8) in March 1975. Just six months later, he held WBA ruler Alfredo Escalera to a 15-round draw.

Escalera’s fellow Puerto Rican Samuel Serrano had picked up the WBA title and twice outboxed Hernandez to win unanimous decisions in June 1977 and June 1981. In between the Serrano fights, Hernandez headed for Japan and narrowly lost to WBA titleholder Yasutsune Uehara (SD15) in November 1980.

Light heavyweight, cruiserweight: 0-5

The rugged Mexican ran WBC 175-pound titlist John Conteh (UD 15) close during their Denmark duel in October 1976. Lopez gave Victor Galindez all sorts of trouble in two WBA title fights, narrowly losing 15-round unanimous decisions during both occasions on Italian soil in September 1977 and May 1978.

Matthew Saad Muhammad was able to outlast Lopez (TKO 14) in a terrific action-packed contest in July 1980. The fight, a rematch of their October 1978 meeting, won Ring's Fight of the Year.

Lopez stepped up to cruiserweight but was well past his prime when easily beaten in four rounds by WBC titleholder Carlos De Leon in September 1983.

Welterweight, junior middleweight: 0-5

Cardona was widely outpointed by WBC 147-pound titlist Pernell Whitaker (UD12) in April 1994. However, he was able to quickly secure a WBO 154-pound title shot against Verno Phillips. The closeness of their first meeting (UD 12) in November 1994 led to an immediate rematch he lost by split decision in February 1995.

The competitive nature of those fights earned him a shot at the vacant WBO crown, but he was stopped by Bronco McKart (TKO 9) in March 1996. The Puerto Rican dropped to 147 pounds and acquitted himself well, though was ultimately outpointed by another WBO beltholder, Russia's Akhmad Kotiev (UD12), in November 1998.

Middleweight, super middleweight: 0-4-1

Murray was surprisingly offered a shot in enemy territory at WBA titleholder Felix Sturm, in the 11th defense of his third world title reign in December 2011.

Many people thought Murray deserved the win in his first outing abroad, though he had to settle for a draw. That success allowed him to parlay that into a fight with WBC champion Sergio Martinez in Argentina, where it was more of the same as he fared well but lost a unanimous decision.

The Brit also fell short in challenges of WBA champion Gennadiy Golovkin (TKO11) in February 2015 as well as WBO super middleweight titlist Arthur Abraham (SD12) nine months later. In his final attempt, he was second-best and soundly beaten by Billy Joe Saunders, the final appearance of his career.