Read our latest article looking at the 5 Greatest Heavyweight Boxers of all time, and give your thoughts in the comments below. Do you agree with our fab five?
5 Greatest Heavyweight Boxers of all Time
The big boys in the sport of boxing has always been the gold standard of fighters, and earlier this year Oleksandr Usyk became the first undisputed champion of the four-belt era by outpointing Tyson Fury. The pair meet in a rematch in December and those two stars may well go down among the greats in time, but our list of the top five greatest heavyweights is reserved for those who have cemented their legacies
Greatest Heavyweight Boxers: Muhammad Ali (1)
Muhammad Ali retired with a 56-5 record, with three of those defeats coming in his last four bouts, and he stands out as the best to compete in the heavyweight division. Ali won his first world title as a 7/1 underdog against Sonny Liston, beat nemesis Joe Frazier in two of their three bouts and produced another upset later in his career by stopping the undefeated George Foreman as a 4/1 outsider.
The American constantly reinvented himself, and his showmanship in and out of the ring set him apart from his rivals in what was a golden age for the division. His legacy as the Greatest Of All Time remains intact over 40 years after his last bout.
Greatest Heavyweight Boxers: Joe Louis (2)
Joe Louis was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world for nearly 12 years and The Brown Bomber faced every challenge head on.
Louis retired with a 66-3 record and laid down the blueprint for all the heavyweights who followed as both a talented boxer and a heavy hitter, with 52 of his wins coming via KO.
Greatest Heavyweight Boxers: Rocky Marciano (3)
Rocky Marciano stood just 5’ 10”, which seems incredible looking at the modern heavyweight landscape, but what he lacked in size he more than made up for in power.
Marciano’s training regimes became the stuff of legend as he spent weeks away from his family preparing for fights, a routine that has become the norm now but set him apart in his own heyday. The Rock is the only heavyweight champion to retire undefeated, with 43 of his 49 wins coming inside the distance.
Greatest Heavyweight Boxers: Lennox Lewis (4)
If you were making a heavyweight boxer in a lab, Lennox Lewis is what you’d end up with. The likeable British-Canadian faced and beat all of the top heavyweights of his era, with the exception of Riddick Bowe, although he did defeat Bowe to claim the gold medal at the 1988 Olympics.
Lewis lost twice, to Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall, but avenged both defeats by securing knockouts in rematches. Lewis’ final fight was one of the most memorable as he stopped future heavyweight king Vitali Klitschko in a fight where he was trailing on all the scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
Greatest Heavyweight Boxers: Mike Tyson (5)
For some, Mike Tyson would top this list and for others he wouldn’t even make the top 10. Tyson won his first 37 fights, with 33 KOs, and destroyed some awesome talents like Larry Holmes (who could have made this list himself), Tony Tucker, Tony Tubbs and Michael Spinks during that legendary run.
Unlike Ali, Frazier and Marciano, Tyson never managed to haul himself off the canvas to win and without that kind of performance there will always be lingering questions over his mentality and heart. But in his best years there was nobody who could put Iron Mike in that kind of position anyway. Tyson initially called time on his career nearly 20 years ago after defeat to Kevin McBride in 2005 but he returns to the ring next month at the age of 58 against Jake Paul. Tyson is 2.95 with kwiff to win, with Paul priced at 1.26, but whatever happens in that bout in November won’t detract from Tyson’s previous exploits.
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