Muhammad Ali

When we talk about the greatest boxers of all time, Muhammad Ali is at the very top. He won the Olympic gold medal for light heavyweight boxing in 1960 and began his career as a professional boxer shortly afterward.

Ali would go on to quickly become the world heavyweight champion in 1964, beating the then-undefeated champion Sonny Liston.

Muhammad Ali was an anomaly in the boxing world. Despite being a heavyweight boxer, Ali had a punching speed and reflexes similar to welterweight boxers. During his career, he fought and defeated famous boxers like Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Joe Louis, Ernie Shavers, and George Foreman.  

Ali’s style of fighting involved keeping his hands low and leaning straight back to avoid incoming punches. Both of these things were considered to be rookie mistakes for a heavyweight boxer. However, Ali’s speed turned these mistakes into a formidable boxing style.

Throughout his career, Ali invented new boxing tactics and demonstrated a fight intellect level far above most boxers. He created the rope-a-dope tactic to beat George Foreman.

 Near the end of his career, Ali suffered from Parkinson’s and his physical well-being declined drastically during his last few fights. Ali retired after he was physically unable to continue fighting. He’s the only boxer ever to become the lineal champion thrice.  

 Sugar Ray Robinson

Among the best pound-for-pound boxers of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson sits at the very top. The nickname ‘Sugar’ came from a newspaper reporter who described him to be sweet as sugar. Ever since Sugar Ray Robinson’s debut in professional boxing in 1940, he maintained a winning streak for 40 consecutive bouts. He won his first Fighter of the Year award in 1942 and the second award in 1951. 

His first loss came at the hands of Jake LaMotta in 1943. However, after his first loss, Robinson remained undefeated for the next eight years. During this time, Robinson fought and won against many middleweight and welterweight Hall of Famers of his era. He became the world welterweight champion in 1946 but later vacated the belt and moved to fight in the middleweight category.

Robinson became the middleweight champion five times throughout his career. He became the world middleweight champion in 1951 after one-sidedly dominating Jake LaMotta. The fight was popularly called The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Robinson initially retired from boxing in 1952 with a career record of 131-3-1. However, he returned to boxing in 1955 and continued to fight until 1965 with a final career record of 175-19-6.

 Muhammad Ali initially wanted Sugar Ray Robinson to be his trainer and in an interview, said that Robinson was the greatest pound-for-pound boxer.

Joe Louis

 Joe Louis, The Brown Bomber, holds the world record for the most title defenses in the history of heavyweight boxing. He defended his world heavyweight title 25 times in a row over an era that spanned 13 years and 3 months in one weight class.

Beginning his pro boxing career at the age of 20, Joe Louis won his first 27 fights back to back, 23 of these fights were by knockout. His first defeat came at the hands of the former heavyweight champion Max Schmeling in 1936. After his defeat, he made a comeback with seven straight wins that earned him a shot at the world heavyweight title.

In 1937, Joe Louis became the world heavyweight champion after knocking out James J. Braddock in round eight. After earning the world title, Joe Louis continued to defend his title for the next 13 years. Joe Louis’s second fight against Max Schmeling (being German) in 1938 especially attracted much attention because of World War II.

 During the bout, he would identify his opponent’s tendencies or habits and punish them through deadly counters. Among all boxers, Joe Louis can be considered the smartest boxer of all time. Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson is among the most popular boxers today. He was known for his power, aggression, and the trademark ‘peek-a-boo’ boxing style inherited from his adoptive father and mentor Cus D’amato. He made his debut as a pro boxer at the age of 18 in 1985.

Following his debut, Mike Tyson went on a rampage with 19 back-to-back knockout victories. He won 2 more fights against James Tillis and Mitch on a unanimous decision before continuing his knockout spree for another 6 fights. In 1986, he made history by becoming the youngest world heavyweight champion after winning the title bout against Trevor Bebick by technical knockout.   

After winning the WBC world title, Mike Tyson went on to challenge and defeat the WBA and IBF world heavyweight champions James Smith and Tony Tucker in 1987. He became the undisputed world heavyweight champion and successfully defended his title 6 times.

Mike Tyson was feared as an opponent because of his power, he stopped Michael Spinks in 91 seconds while knocking out Marvis Fraizer in the first round. During his professional career, Mike Tyson won against famous boxers like Larry Holmes, Tony Tucker, Trevor Berbick.

Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather is one of the most famous boxers today. His father Floyd Mayweather Sr. and his uncle, Roger Mayweather, trained Floyd Mayweather from the start to become an outstanding boxer and he is considered one of the best boxers in the world.

During his amateur years, Floyd Mayweather won the bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics while also winning three National Golden Gloves Championships. After making his debut as a pro boxer, Floyd Mayweather changed his weight class several times during his career.

He fought in welterweight, super featherweight, lightweight, and light middleweight divisions. In each weight division, Mayweather won a world title and has one of the longest successful title defense streaks in history with 26 successful title defenses.

Floyd Mayweather’s fighting style is very technical with a heavy emphasis on defensive boxing. With his airtight defense, it was difficult to land punches on him. Multiple boxing and sports websites including The Ring, ESPN, and BoxRec ranked Floyd Mayweather as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world twice within a decade.

Floyd Mayweather retired from boxing in 2017. However, he has continued to hold exhibition matches with celebrities such as the Youtuber, Logan Paul.

Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield represented the United States in the 1984 Olympics and won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight division. Evander entered professional boxing in 1985 as a cruiserweight boxer. At the age of 22, in 1986, he defeated Dwight Muhammad Qawi for the WBA world title.

Holyfield went on to unite all cruiserweight titles by defeating Ricky Parkey and Carlon de Leon to win the WBC and IBF belts, in turn becoming the undisputed world cruiserweight champion. Starting from 1988, Holyfield moved up to the heavyweight division and dominated the competition.

He challenged James ‘Buster’ Douglas and won the unification match winning the WBA, WBC, and IBF heavyweight titles, becoming the undisputed world heavyweight champion. Holyfield defended his title 3 times before losing the title to Micheal Moorer in 1994.

However, Holyfield rebounded and in 1996, reclaimed the WBA title after defeating Tyson in what is now considered the biggest upset in boxing history. Holyfield later lost and reclaimed his titles multiple times, becoming the only boxer in the world to reclaim a title four times.

He is also the only boxer to have held a title in three different decades as well as the only one to be the undisputed champion in both heavyweight and cruiserweight categories.

Roberto Duran

Roberto ‘Hands of Stone’ Duran competed and won the world title in four different weight divisions. He debuted as a pro boxer at the age of only 16 years old in 1968. He competed in five different decades and had an illustrious career record of 103-16.

Duran was known for his technical fight style which was a mix of brawling and pressure fighting. He had an outstanding defense and he won his first world title in 1972 with an undefeated record. Duran had 12 successful title defenses before he moved up to the welterweight division.

As a welterweight boxer, Duran defeated Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980 by unanimous decision in a historic fight known today as  The Brawl in Montreal. Duran later went on to capture the WBA light middleweight title from Davey Moore in 1983 and the WBA middleweight title from Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

In 1989, Duran also claimed the WBC middleweight title after defeating Iran Barkley. Duran retired from boxing following a car accident in 2001 but he’s still involved in boxing as a popular promoter today.