How about Madara was defeated by the First Hokage? We already know that to be a fact.Originally Posted by February
From the picture in chapter 399, we see that he had swords through his body and was badly injured. HE survived, but that doesn't mean his body did.
He managed to hang on long enough to find some random weak person and take over their body, although the body was not of an Uchiha and thus did not have the Sharingan. He survived through the years like Oro did, by jumping from body to body.
Then one day, as luck would have it, he comes across a dying Obito who, despite having a rock crushing him, still has one functional Sharingan. Madara frees Obito from beneath the boulder and takes him back to his lair where he heals his body, like he did with Sasuke.
Madara then takes over Obito's body and finally, after all these years, has a Sharingan again! But alas, as Itachi said, Madara is still just a shell of his former self.
Does that work for you?