Roll With The Punches

Boxing has long been one of the most explosive and captivating sports around, its products some of the most spectacular athletes of all time. Some of these men are undisputed legends that truly belong in the conversation of the best of all time. Many others have been grossly overrated in this respect. With that in mind, here are some of the best and overrated boxers around.

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1. Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is considered by many people to have been one of the greatest boxers of all time. Ali was a skilled, charismatic, and durable fighter who first gained prominence after an impressive amateur career and an Olympic Gold Medal. Turning professional in 1960, he went on to win the heavyweight title in 1964 and over a 21-year career became the first three-time lineal heavyweight champion, with 19 successful title defenses, 56 wins, and five losses.

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2. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has the most wins without a loss and retired with an undefeated record of 50-0. A polished amateur boxer who won an Olympic bronze medal, he is a five-division world champion and professional star who has beaten boxing's best while using his defensive skills to retire with a perfect record.

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3. Joe Louis

Joe Louis had incredible power, knocking out 52 of his 66 opponents. Louis was the longest-reigning world heavyweight champion, with a reign that lasted over 11 years, and is the only world champion to have served in the military during his reign. He had 27 wins in world title fights, three career losses, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

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4. Manny Pacquiao

Pacquiao is a boxer who won world titles in eight different divisions and is recognized as one of the best in boxing history. He started his professional career at 106 pounds in 1995. Moving up in weight over the years, he held titles from the flyweight division to the super welterweight division.

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5. Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson had a 25-year professional boxing career with close to 200 fights, was known for his power punching, and had multiple long winning streaks, including a 40-fight and 91-fight winning streak. He won world titles in two weight divisions, welterweight and middleweight, beating many greats such as Henry Armstrong, Jake LaMotta, and Kid Gavilan. In 1967, Robinson was inducted into the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame, and in 1990 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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6. Jack Dempsey

The "Manassa Mauler" was a major cash draw for boxing's first time, generating in excess of $1,000,000 in gate receipts through his exciting fights. He held the world heavyweight championship from 1919 to 1923 and was the first to hold both the NBA and NYSAC World Heavyweight titles. Dempsey won 53 of his 67 professional fights.

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7. Rocky Marciano

Rocky Marciano, the “Brockton Blockbuster,” was a great heavyweight who competed in the vaunted division with an undefeated record of 49–0, 43 KOs. He captured the world heavyweight title in 1952 with a win over Jersey Joe Walcott and successfully defended it six times against the likes of Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore. Unfortunately, Marciano had a short-lived legacy due to his tragic passing.

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8. Roberto Durán

Roberto Durán is Panama's best boxer of all time. He had a 33-year career in which he won four titles in four different divisions. Of his 119 total fights, Durán won 103 and won 16 out of his 21 title fights. He defeated world-class opponents, including Sugar Ray Leonard and Ken Buchanan, and twice won the Ring Magazine Comeback of the Year award.

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9. Henry Armstrong

Henry Armstrong became the undisputed champion in three separate divisions during his career, becoming the only boxer to do so. He held this achievement, even though only for a few months in 1938, for the longest time. In a 14-year career, Armstrong knocked out and outpointed 18 of his opponents in world title fights, defeating great boxers like Chalky Wright and Barney Ross.

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10. Willie Pep

Now that we’ve talked about some of the best, here are 10 that were kind of overrated. Pep is considered one of the greatest featherweight champions of all time. He was extremely elusive and is the standard by which defensive prowess is measured in boxing. Pep dominated the featherweight division from 1942 to 1948 and 1949 to 1950, vanquishing many of the best opposition, including Sandy Saddler and Chalky Wright.

Now that we talked about some of the best boxers in history, here are 10 overrated ones.

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1. Gerald McClellan

Gerald McClellan was a big hitter, a crowd-pleaser, and a banger who got by on a power-punching style rather than discipline or skill. He had the ability to stop anyone he fought and has been considered one of the great knockout artists, his record certainly backs that up. In his prime, he would have had the power and toughness to beat most of the greats, and some will point to the fact that he could beat Roy Jones Jr. as proof of this, but he was not a good technical fighter, nor was he a "punch and pray" type of fighter.

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2. Joe Frazier

Joe Frazier is generally overrated, more so when considering the paltriness of his résumé outside of his first victory over Muhammad Ali. He folded when facing George Foreman. As much of an admirable warrior as he was, he doesn’t compare to some of the other greats.

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3. Felix Trinidad

Felix Trinidad was an exciting puncher with a left hook that could stun opponents into a quick knockout, but his overall toolset was incomplete. He was repeatedly exposed by opponents who were more able to utilize movement, jabs, and ring IQ in lopsided losses to Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. His fanbase continues to push him into “all-time great” status, but his limitations are evident.

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4. Oscar De La Hoya

Oscar De La Hoya was a huge star who put glamour and attention back into boxing, but his résumé falls short of his reputation as an all-time great. He won the big fights, but he also lost many of them and fell short far too often against the best of the best like Bernard Hopkins, Shane Mosley, and Floyd Mayweather. His career will be remembered just as much for his marketability and "Golden Boy" image as it will for his accomplishments.

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5. Timothy Bradley

Timothy Bradley was a hard-nosed fighter who had a lot of grit, and he was plenty good, but his skill set and body of work never quite lived up to his all-time great hype. Bradley was a fast and durable fighter who just didn't possess the power or the diverse tool set to envision him prevailing against the all-time greats at 140. Hyped as a potential legend, Bradley's résumé and style are much more in the "very good" territory than "all-time elite."

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6. Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson was an explosive, exciting heavyweight. But his résumé doesn’t deserve the lofty rankings many fans give him. The only opponents he beat with any significance were faded opponents or overmatched contenders. Every disciplined, prepared elite fighter he faced exposed his flaws.

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7. Aaron Pryor

Aaron Pryor was an entertaining, wildly aggressive fighter with exceptional speed and power. However, his crude, wild style and predictable tendencies ultimately made him fall short of greatness. His best wins were against an aged Antonio Cervantes and a faded Alexis Arguello. The Four Kings took turns facing and avoiding Pryor, and fans like to embellish his legacy by making it sound like they were ducking him.

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8. Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson is one of boxing's most overrated champions. While his influence outside of boxing is impressive, from a boxing standpoint, he is very overrated. He made a name for himself by clinching, wrestling, and outpointing smaller, out-of-practice opponents, and even his most famous victory was achieved by pounding the ropes in the early rounds until Jeffries faded.

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9. Naseem Hamed

Hamed was a flash in the pan who staked his entire career on style over substance. With trash talk, wowing entrances, big punches, and unmatched hype, Naseem constructed one of the most bloated records among the greatest of all time. However, his entire career was one in which he never faced a true "top tier" opponent until Marco Antonio Barrera. Hamed was so thoroughly outclassed by Barrera that he never again fought a credible opponent in his career.

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10. Adrien Broner

Peddled as the “next Floyd Mayweather” from the start of his career, Adrien Broner has never been able to actually live up to that moniker once he entered the ring against top competition. Defeats at the hands of Marcos Maidana, Shawn Porter, and Mikey Garcia all showcased his limitations at the elite level of boxing. Lack of discipline, combined with a constant stream of lifestyle distractions and legal issues, became hallmarks of his career and deprived him of the chance at real, long-term greatness.

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