Greatest Boxers of All Time

These are the best boxers to ever step in the ring.

For the larger part of the 20th century, only Major League Baseball could hold a candle to boxing as the most popular sport in the United States — a fact that’s probably foreign to modern sports fans.

But boxing’s reign produced some of the most memorable moments in sports history, including a fight that drew in a television audience that exceeded 1 billion worldwide. For a long time, the marquee fights were key sports moments for every calendar year.

The true legends of the sport aren’t just the household names we all know as sports fans … but you probably know most of them. Here’s a look at the best boxers of all time.

30. Jake LaMotta

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Born: July 10, 1922 (New York, New York)

Died: Sept. 19, 2017, 95 years old (Aventura, Florida)

Record: 83-19-4

Primary weight class: Middleweight/light heavyweight

Bottom line: Boxer Jake LaMotta’s life was the subject of the Academy Award-winning film “Raging Bull,” directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro as LaMotta, with De Niro bringing home Best Actor honors.

LaMotta learned to fight as a child in The Bronx, where his father had him fight other boys to entertain adults in the neighborhood and collected money for the fights to pay the rent. LaMotta then refined his skills in a boys’ reformatory as a teen.

He makes this list almost purely for his ability to take punches unlike perhaps any other boxer who ever lived and for his six-fight series against Sugar Ray Robinson, in which LaMotta went 1-5 but earned a tremendous amount of acclaim.

29. Michael Spinks

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Born: July 13, 1956 (St. Louis, Missouri)

Record: 31-1

Primary weight class: Light heavyweight

Bottom line: Michael Spinks and his brother Leon Spinks both shot to fame at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where they both won gold medals. Michael turned pro and won his first 31 professional fights during a stretch that included becoming the undisputed light heavyweight champion, 10 successful title defenses and finally becoming the heavyweight champion by defeating Larry Holmes. In fact, Michael was the first reigning light heavyweight champion to become heavyweight champion.

Michael’s career ended with a knockout loss at the hands of Mike Tyson in 91 seconds in 1988, which was the only loss of his pro career. Michael was a rarity in the boxing world, as he never returned to the ring and has lived in relative anonymity since then, shunning the spotlight.

28. John L. Sullivan

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Born: Oct. 15, 1858 (Boston, Massachusetts)

Died: Feb. 2, 1918, 59 years old (Abington, Massachusetts)

Record: 42-1-3

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: This is my sentimental pick for a lot of reasons — mainly because coverage of John L. Sullivan’s boxing career basically invented sports journalism.

The Boston Strong Boy became the first gloved boxing heavyweight champion, which isn’t nearly as impressive as the title he held before that as the bare-knuckle champion.

Sullivan dropped out of Boston College his freshman year to play pro baseball for $40 a week before becoming a pro fighter, where his documented record of fights does little to tell the actual story of his career. Sullivan reportedly won over 450 fights in his career and once fought a championship bout that lasted 75 rounds.

27. Artur Beterbiev

Frank Franklin II / AP Photo

Born: Jan. 21, 1985 (Khasavyurt, Dagestan ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union — now Khasavyurt, Dagestan, Russia)

Record: 19-0

Primary weight class: Light heavyweight

Bottom line: The only active boxer to make this list, Artur Beterbiev has proven to be one of the greatest light heavyweights of all time. He finally became the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world in 2022, with his ascent to the top slowed by a nasty legal battle with a former manager that saw him fight just once in 2017 and 2018.

Beterbiev has won every match he’s fought since 2013 by knockout or stoppage.

26. Gene Tunney

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Born: May 25, 1897 (New York, New York)

Died: Nov. 7, 1978, 81 years old (Greenwich, Connecticut)

Record: 82-1-4

Primary weight class: Light heavyweight

Bottom line: Gene Tunney owned the 1920s in boxing when he held both the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles at different times. This included the famous “Long Count” fight in which he defeated Jack Dempsey in front of approximately 104,000 fans at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

Tunney was a boxer ahead of his time — in an age of brawlers, he was a strategist who wanted to try and outthink his opponents. Tunney’s only career loss came to Harry Greb in 1922, but Tunney returned to defeat Greb two more times.

25. Larry Holmes

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Born: Nov. 3, 1949 (Cuthbert, Georgia)

Record: 69-6

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: Known as “The Easton Assassin” in honor of his boyhood home of Easton, Pennsylvania, Larry Holmes went from being a seventh-grade dropout to being one of the finest heavyweight boxers of all time.

The start of Holmes’ career was truly something to behold, as he won his first 48 matches — including wins over Ken Norton, Muhammad Ali, Earnie Shavers and Gerry Cooney — before falling in an upset to Michael Spinks in the match that would have tied Rocky Marciano’s historic 49-0 record.

Holmes lost in his rematch with Spinks, and all six of his career losses came in heavyweight title fights. He fought professionally in some form or another until he was 52 years old.

24. Oscar De La Hoya

Lennox McLendon / AP Photo

Born: Feb. 4, 1973 (East Los Angeles, California)

Record: 39-6

Primary weight class: Multiple

Bottom line: Oscar De La Hoya shot a jolt of energy into boxing just a few months out of high school when he won a gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics, earning the nickname “The Golden Boy” and jumpstarting one of boxing’s great careers.

De La Hoya was kind of a genius when it came to picking fights throughout his career on the way to winning world championships in six different weight classes. For over a decade, when De La Hoya was fighting, it was the biggest fight you could see, and when he retired, he’d generated almost $1 billion pay-per-view (PPV) sales.

Four of De La Hoya’s six career losses came during his last seven fights.

23. Thomas Hearns

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Born: Oct. 18, 1958 (Grand Junction, Tennessee)

Record: 61-5-1

Primary weight class: Multiple

Bottom line: Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns fought professionally for almost 30 years and became the first boxer in history to win world titles in five different divisions — welterweight, light middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.

Legendary trainer Manny Steward turned Hearns into a feared puncher, and “The Motor City Cobra” reeled off 17 knockouts to start his career and was 28-0 when he won his first world title by beating Jose Cuevas by TKO in 1980.

Hearns’ first career loss came in 1981 to Sugar Ray Leonard in a 14-round slugfest that came with a purse of $17 million — the largest in sports history at the time. Hearns’ loss to Marvelous Marvin Hagler for the middleweight title in 1985 is considered by some to be the greatest fight of all time.

22. Evander Holyfield

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo

Born: Oct. 19, 1962 (Atmore, Alabama)

Record: 44-10-2

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: Most boxing fans think of just one incident when it comes to Evander Holyfield’s career — when Mike Tyson bit part of his ear off during a 1997 fight for the WBA Heavyweight Championship. But that’s not really fair to Holyfield.

Holyfield’s career was defined by his ability to bounce back from defeats, becoming the first boxer since Muhammad Ali to win the heavyweight title three different times. Holyfield’s signature win came after he medically retired in 1994 then returned to defeat Mike Tyson in 1996 for the belt.

Fun fact: One of Holyfield’s sons, Elijah, played running back for the University of Georgia and for the Philadelphia Eagles.

21. Jack Johnson

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Born: March 31, 1978 (Galveston, Texas)

Died: June 10, 1946, 68 years old (Franklinton, North Carolina)

Record: 72-11-11

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: Jack Johnson was the first Black man to ever win the world heavyweight boxing championship and held the title from 1908 through 1915 — a period in which Johnson became arguably the most famous athlete on the planet.

The signature moment in his career was “The Fight of the Century” in 1910 against former champion James Jeffries, who said he was coming out of retirement to “prove the superiority of the white race,” then threw in the towel in the 15th round.

Johnson’s life away from the ring was defined by his arrest for violating the Mann Act — transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes — when he went from one state to another with the white woman who was his wife. Johnson was sentenced to a year in prison and in 2018 was finally granted a pardon after a campaign by actor Sylvester Stallone to clear his name.

Johnson died in a car accident in 1946. He was 68 years old.

20. Wladimir Klitschko

Frank Augstein / AP Photo

Born: March 25, 1976 (Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union — now Semey, Kazakhstan)

Record: 64-5

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: This spot on the list came down to either current heavyweight champ Tyson Fury or Wladimir Klitschko, and we give Klitschko the nod.

Wladimir Klitschko thrived under the guidance of legendary trainer Manny Steward, who did for the Ukrainian superstar what he did for Lennox Lewis early in his career. Steward’s genius was teaching boxers who were taught to destroy opponents with punches to embrace the defensive side of the sport, and Klitschko’s combined reign of 12 years over heavyweight divisions is an all-time record.

19. Sonny Liston

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Born: Date Unknown, 1930 (Sand Slough, Arkansas)

Died: Dec. 30, 1970, 40 years old (Las Vegas, Nevada)

Record: 50-4

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: Sonny Liston was one of the greatest heavyweights of all time while simultaneously being one of the greatest sports villains of all time, thanks to his antagonistic relationship with a young Muhammad Ali and accusations of fight fixing.

Liston made his name in the ring by beating Floyd Patterson not once but twice in the first round to become heavyweight champion, and his loss to Ali in 1964 was one of the great upsets in sports history.

Liston’s mysterious background — no one knew his correct date of birth — and his connections to the criminal underworld added to his persona. Liston died under mysterious circumstances in Las Vegas in 1970 when he was just 40 years old.

18. Bernard Hopkins

George Widman / AP Photo

Born: Jan. 15, 1965 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Record: 55-8-2

Primary weight class: Middleweight

Bottom line: The story of Bernard Hopkins and his ascent to boxing superstardom is almost too impossible to believe. Sentenced to 18 years in prison for nine felonies when he was just 17 years old, Hopkins discovered his passion for boxing in prison and, upon early release, took on a professional career.

Hopkins — known as “The Executioner” — would go on to win world championships in two divisions, becoming the undisputed middleweight champion from 2001 to 2005 and holding part of the light heavyweight title in 2011 and 2012.

17. Julio Cesar Chavez

Gilbert Tourte / AP Photo

Born: July 12, 1962 (Obregon, Sonora, Mexico)

Record: 107-6-2

Primary weight class: Lightweight, light welterweight

Bottom line: Julio Cesar Chavez became a world champion in three different weight classes and did so multiple times, with Ring Magazine naming him the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer from 1990 to 1993.

Chavez set the record for most title bout wins with 27, and he won 89 consecutive fights to start his career. He’s also one of the most popular Mexican athletes of all time, and his 1993 win over Greg Haugan in Mexico City set the world record for attendance at an outdoor boxing match in front of approximately 136,000 fans.

Chavez’s son, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., became WBC middleweight champion in 2011.

16. Roberto Duran

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Born: June 16, 1951 (El Chorrillo, Panama)

Record: 103-16

Primary weight class: Lightweight

Bottom line: Roberto Duran’s pro career spanned four decades that began in 1968, when he was just 16 years old, and went until 2001. He won world titles in four divisions as a lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight.

Duran’s fists — known as the “hands of stone” — never doled out punishment more than when he fought Davey Moore at Madison Square Garden in 1983 following Duran’s infamous “No Mas” loss to Sugar Ray Leonard. Moore questioned Duran’s ability to come back from the fight, and Duran beat Moore to the point where spectators began to try and rush the ring to stop the fight as Moore staggered out to begin the eighth round. Mercifully, the fight was stopped.

In a testament to Duran’s resilience, he was honored as Comeback of the Year by Ring Magazine twice, in 1983 and 1989.

15. Manny Pacquiao

Isaac Brekken / AP Photo

Born: Dec. 17 ,1978 (Kibawe, Bukidnon, Philippines)

Record: 62-8-2

Primary weight class: Welterweight

Bottom line: Manny Pacquiao rose out of abject poverty in the Philippines to become one of the best boxers of all time and the most well-known Filipino athlete ever.

Pacquiao is the only boxer to win world championships in eight different weight divisions, winning his first title in the flyweight division in 1998 and winning his final world title in the welterweight division in 2019. Pacquiao drops several spots on this list for ducking the smoke and not fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. until 2015 — at least six years after the fight should have been fought. Pacquiao lost that fight, although its $410 million PPV revenue made it the most profitable PPV fight in history.

14. Joe Frazier

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Born: Jan. 12, 1944 (Beaufort, South Carolina)

Died: Nov. 7, 2011, 67 years old (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Record: 32-4-1

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: Smokin’ Joe Frazier was one of the most feared boxers of all time, becoming the first man to defeat Muhammad Ali but losing the rubber match in the 1975 “Thrilla in Manila” match with an estimated television audience of 1 billion watching. The animosity between Ali and Frazier would become one of the all-time great rivalries in sports history.

Frazier shot into the boxing world with a gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics, held the heavyweight belt from 1970 to 1973 and was Ring Magazine’s three-time Boxer of the Year. In Frazier’s career, he lost to just two boxers, and both were heavyweight champions — Ali twice and George Foreman twice. Frazier died of liver cancer in 2011 at 67 years old.

13. George Foreman

Lennox McLendon / AP Photo

Born: Jan. 10, 1949 (Marshall, Texas)

Record: 76-5

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: George Foreman won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics and went pro the next year, then took the heavyweight title with a stunning second-round knockout of undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973 — one of the greatest upsets in sports history.

Foreman came out on the losing end of “The Rumble in the Jungle” against Muhammad Ali in 1974 and then retired after a surprise loss to Jimmy Young in 1977. That’s when things got weird. One decade later, Foreman returned to boxing after a religious awakening and won the heavyweight title in 1994 at 45 years old by defeating Michael Moorer. Foreman retired from boxing after one title defense and relinquished his title in 1996 as the oldest heavyweight champ in history at 46 years old.

12. Ezzard Charles

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Born: July 7, 1921 (Lawrenceville, Georgia)

Died: May 28, 1975, 53 years old (Chicago, Illinois)

Record: 95-25-1

Primary weight class: Light heavyweight

Bottom line: Arguably the greatest light heavyweight of all time despite never holding the world title in that weight class, Ezzard Charles might not be a name the modern fight fan remembers but boxing historians hold in high regard.

Charles — known as “The Cincinnati Cobra” — was a middleweight before going to fight in World War II and then returned to the boxing game as a light heavyweight. Charles’ career was marked by the inherent violence that comes with fighting. In 1948, Charles knocked out Sam Baroudi in the 10th round, and Baroudi later died from injuries sustained in the fight. But Charles’ two greatest matches were losses to Rocky Marciano — Charles was the only fighter to go the distance with Marciano and broke his nose so severely that it was described as being “split in half.” Interestingly enough, the two maintained a close friendship the rest of their lives.

Charles died in 1975 after battling ALS for several years. He was 53 years old.

11. Marvelous Marvin Hagler

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Born: May 23, 1954 (Newark, New Jersey)

Died: March 13, 2021, 66 years old (Bartlett, New Hampshire)

Record: 62-3-2

Primary weight class: Middleweight

Bottom line: Marvelous Marvin Hagler — yes, he legally changed his name to include Marvelous in 1982 — cemented his place as a boxing GOAT with perhaps the three greatest rounds in boxing history after his win over Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns for the undisputed world middleweight championship in 1985.

Hagler was the undisputed middleweight champion from 1980 until his epic fight against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1987. Hagler also had an ability to absorb punishment unlike few boxers in history — he was officially knocked down just once in his career, by Juan Roldan.

Plus, Hagler had one of the more interesting post-boxing careers of anyone on this list. After he hung up his gloves he moved to Italy, where he became a well-known action film star. He died in 2021 at 66 years old.

10. Lennox Lewis

Dave Caulkin / AP Photo

Born: Sept. 2, 1965 (West Ham, London)

Record: 41-2-1

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: British fighter Lennox Lewis continued the tradition of great heavyweight fighters to win Olympic gold medals — he got his in 1988 — who went on to become world champions.

If you want to know anything about the state of the heavyweight division over the last 20 years, consider that Lewis was the last undisputed heavyweight champ and has been retired since 2004. Lewis is also one of just three heavyweight champs to defeat every boxer he ever faced.

If you want to take just one of Lewis’ fights to underline his place on this list, let me suggest his 2003 win over Vitali Klitschko — Lewis’ last pro fight — in which he rearranged the entire structure of Klitschko’s face, which needed 60 stitches to be put back together.

9. Sugar Ray Leonard

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Born: May 17, 1956 (Wilmington, North Carolina)

Record: 36-3-1

Primary weight class: Welterweight

Bottom line: One of the “Four Kings” alongside Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran — who were all credited for keeping the sport alive after Muhammad Ali’s retirement — Sugar Ray Leonard was the first boxer to pass $100 million in fight purses.

Leonard came on the scene by winning a gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and then fought bigger than big fights for the next 20 years. He won titles in five divisions: welterweight, light middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.

Leonard had so many memorable moments during his career that it’s hard to pick out just one, but after losing to Duran in “The Brawl in Montreal” and then making him quit in the “No Mas” rematch in New Orleans, Louisiana, sticks out.

8. Henry Armstrong

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Born: Dec. 12, 1912 (Columbus, Mississippi)

Died: Oct. 24, 1988, 75 years old (Los Angeles, California)

Record: 151-21-9

Primary weight class: Middleweight

Bottom line: It’s a common theme of boxers on this list to have won championships in multiple divisions over a period of time. Only Henry Armstrong held titles in three different weight classes — featherweight, lightweight and middleweight — at the same time in 1938.

Fans labeled him “Hurricane Henry” or “Homicide Hank,” as he dominated boxing in the years leading up to World War II and tallied a staggering 180 fights in his career.

7. Joe Louis

Anthony Camerano / AP Photo

Born: May 13, 1914 (LaFayette, Alabama)

Died: April 12, 1981, 66 years old (Paradise, Nevada)

Record: 66-3

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: Joe Louis was a superstar Black athlete in an era when America was still segregated. He won the world heavyweight championship in 1934 and kept it until his retirement in 1949. Out of Louis’ 66 wins, 52 were by knockout. In title bouts, Louis went 27-1 with 23 knockouts.

Plus, Louis wasn’t just a trailblazer in boxing. Following his fighting career, he became the first Black player on the PGA Tour.

6. Sugar Ray Robinson

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Born: May 3, 1921 (Ailey, Georgia)

Died: April 12, 1989, 67 years older (Los Angeles, California)

Record: 174-19-6

Primary weight class: Welterweight

Bottom line: Sugar Ray Robinson had a storied amateur career, going 86-0 before he turned pro in 1940 and reeled off 40 consecutive wins. Robinson won the world welterweight title in 1940 and the world middleweight title in 1957 and ended up with one of the longest careers of all time, fighting for 25 years.

Robinson’s game was all about power — 110 of his 174 victories came by knockouts, and along with his 40-match streak to start his career, he reeled off 91 consecutive wins after that.

Some of the biggest names on this list fell to Robinson, including Henry Armstrong and Jake LaMotta, with Robinson taking down “The Bronx Bull” in five of their six matches. The term “pound-for-pound” was actually invented for Robinson because his skill in the ring was so great journalists needed a way to compare him to other boxers of his era in heavier weight classes.

5. Roy Jones Jr.

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Born: Jan. 16, 1969 (Pensacola, Florida)

Record: 66-10

Primary weight class: Light heavyweight

Bottom line: Pensacola native Roy Jones Jr. has an unquestioned place in boxing history among the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time and the first former middleweight champion in 106 years to also win the heavyweight title. In 1999, he was also the undisputed light heavyweight champion.

Jones Jr. first got onto the radars of boxing fans at the 1988 Summer Olympics when he lost a controversial and, some say, rigged match to South Korea’s Park Si-Hun for the gold medal. But five years later, Jones Jr. won his first world championship by defeating undisputed middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

Financial troubles have dogged Jones Jr. since the end of his reign as champion. He blew a reported $98 million fortune through various bad investments — including a rap career — and took Russian citizenship to help pay part of an American tax bill. That’s a big reason why he also has the longest career in professional boxing history at 33 years.

4. Mike Tyson

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Born: June 30, 1966 (New York, New York)

Record: 50-6

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: One of the most well-known and controversial professional athletes of all time, Mike Tyson took the sporting world by storm when he won the WBC heavyweight championship in 1985 and became the undisputed champion in 1987 when he won the WBC, WBA and IBF titles in succession — the first person in history to do so.

Tyson lost the titles in one of the most shocking upsets of all time when he lost to Buster Douglas in 1990, and his legacy took a dark turn in 1992 when he was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison, although he served just three before being released and returning to boxing.

And we can’t forget Tyson’s legacy after prison, which was defined by his 1997 fight against Evander Holyfield when he bit off part of Holyfield’s ear during the fight.

3. Rocky Marciano

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Born: Sept. 1, 1923 (Brockton, Massachusetts)

Died: Aug. 31, 1969, 45 years old (Newton, Iowa)

Record: 49-0

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: One of just two undefeated boxers on this list, Rocky Marciano is the only heavyweight to finish his career without a loss, going 49-0.

Marciano defeated Jersey Joe Walcott for the heavyweight belt in 1952 and won six title bouts after that, most notably defeating Walcott again and Ezzard Charles twice, including once where Charles essentially split Marciano’s face open. Marciano’s superpower was knocking his opponent out — of his 49 wins, 43 ended with his opponent on the canvas.

Marciano died along with two others in a plane crash in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1969 when he was 45 years old.

2. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Isaac Brekken / AP Photo

Born: Feb. 24, 1977 (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

Record: 50-0

Primary weight class: Welterweight

Bottom line: Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the other boxer on this list to finish their pro careers unbeaten. That’s because he played defense better than possibly any boxer who ever lived, which meant his fights weren’t always exciting but always had the same result. He won.

Mayweather Jr.’s 50-0 record is the greatest in boxing history, beating Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record by just one victory. Mayweather spent his career taking on all comers and has a murderer’s row of fighters who fell at his hands, including Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquaio, Arturo Gatti and Shane Mosley.

Mayweather Jr. also shares the record of 11 world title victories with former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, and he happens to be the richest boxer of all time with a reported net worth of $500 million in 2023.

1. Muhammad Ali

Mitsunori Chigita / AP Photo

Born: Jan. 17, 1942 (Louisville, Kentucky)

Died: June 3, 2016, 74 years old (Scottsdale, Arizona)

Record: 56-5

Primary weight class: Heavyweight

Bottom line: Perhaps the most famous athlete to ever walk the face of the Earth, Muhammad Ali was still known as Cassius Clay when he won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and captured his first heavyweight championship in 1964 when he was just 22 years old.

Ali lost four years in the prime of his career after refusing to fight in the Vietnam War and was stripped of the heavyweight belt. He returned to win his title back and fought in two of the greatest boxing matches of all time, defeating George Foreman in “The Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974 and Joe Frazier in “The Thrilla in Manila” in 1975.

Ali battled Parkinson’s Disease for the last part of his life and died in 2016 at 74 years old.