The Greatest Boxers Of All Time
Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr. is an American retired professional boxer. Widely considered the greatest boxer of his era, undefeated as a professional and a five-division world champion, Mayweather won twelve world titles and the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He is a two-time winner of the Ring magazine Fighter of the Year award; a three-time winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year award; and a six-time winner of the Best Fighter ESPY Award. BoxRec currently rates Mayweather as the fifth greatest pound for pound fighter of all time, and the greatest pound for pound welterweight of all time.
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow, best known as Joe Louis, was an American professional boxer. He held the world heavyweight championship from 1937 to 1949, and is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Nicknamed the "Brown Bomber", Louis helped elevate boxing from a decline in popularity in the post-Jack Dempsey era by establishing a reputation as an honest, hardworking fighter at a time when the sport was dominated by gambling interests. Louis' championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months, during which he participated in 26 championship fights; a 27th fight, against Ezzard Charles, was a challenge to Charles' heavyweight title and so is not included in Louis' reign. Louis was victorious in 25 title defenses, a record for any division. In 2005, Louis was ranked as the #1 heavyweight of all-time by the International Boxing Research Organization, and was ranked #1 on The Ring magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Punchers of All-Time.
Manny Pacquiao
Emmanuel Dapidran "Manny" Pacquiao, PLH, is a Filipino world champion professional boxer. At 32 he was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives. He has also been involved in basketball, acting, and singing.
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is an American former professional boxer. He held the undisputed world heavyweight championship and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles at 20 years, 4 months, and 22 days old. Tyson won his first 19 professional bouts by knockout, 12 of them in the first round. He won the WBC title in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in the second round. In 1987, Tyson added the WBA and IBF titles after defeating James Smith and Tony Tucker. This made him the first heavyweight boxer to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles, and the only heavyweight to successively unify them.
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, generally considered among the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport. A controversial and polarizing figure during his early career, Ali is now highly regarded for the skills he displayed in the ring plus the values he exemplified outside of it: religious freedom, racial justice and the triumph of principle over expedience. He is one of the most recognized sports figures of the past 100 years, crowned "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated and "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC.
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano was an American professional boxer who held the world heavyweight title from September 23, 1952 to April 27, 1956. Marciano went undefeated in his career and defended his title six times, against Jersey Joe Walcott, Roland La Starza, Ezzard Charles, Don Cockell, and Archie Moore.
Roy Jones Jr.
Roy Levesta Jones, Jr. is an American-Russian professional boxer, boxing commentator, boxing trainer, rapper and actor. As a professional he has captured numerous world titles in the middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. He is the only boxer in history to start his career as a light middleweight and go on to win a heavyweight title. As an amateur he won a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics.
Sugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Robinson was an American professional boxer. Frequently cited as the greatest boxer of all time, Robinson's performances in the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
George Foreman
George Edward "Big George" Foreman, is an American former professional boxer. In his boxing career he was a two-time world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medallist. Outside the sport he went on to become an ordained minister, author and entrepreneur.
Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Charles "Ray" Leonard is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, Leonard was part of "The Fabulous Four" a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of himself, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. "The Fabulous Four" created a wave of popularity in the lower weight classes that kept boxing relevant in the post-Muhammad Ali era. Leonard was also the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, won world titles in five weight divisions, including a run as the undisputed welterweight champion, and defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Hearns, Durán, Hagler, and Wilfred BenÃtez. Leonard was named "Boxer of the Decade" in the 1980s.
