Who has the best boxing record?

Boxing is a sport judged by records, but who had the best?

Boxing is a sport very reliant on records. When a boxer turns pro, they begin their career by building up their record, fighting journeyman over four, six, then eight-rounders until they get to a decent base to then start challenging for titles.

There’s a fine art to building a record, just one bit of a bad matchmaking could wreck it all. A good promoter will match their prospects against the right tests at the right time, to hopefully get their fighter in line for titles with the best background and experience behind them as possible.

Floyd Mayweather Jr, who calls himself ‘The Best Ever’, fought mostly journeymen at the start of his career in the late 90s, and less than half of his first dozen opponents had winning records.

He then started to increase the quality of opposition and won a world title in his 18th fight after building up to level that perfectly.

This is standard practise in boxing, with only very few exceptions, such as Vasiliy Lomachenko, who had such an outstanding amateur career (397-1) that he fought for a title in his pro debut.

Floyd was built up traditionally and famously retired undefeated with a perfect record, but he wasn’t the only one to do this. Read on to discover some of boxing’s best ever records in the history of the sport.

Boxers Who Retired Undefeated

Floyd Mayweather (50-0, 27KO) – Although often accused of cherry-picking his opponents later in his career, Mayweather’s record for defeating the most titleholders in history at 23 cannot be denied.

The Michigan man climbed the ladder perfectly to win his first world title in October 1998, less than two years on from his pro debut.

It wasn’t until his sixth defence when he finally entered into a 50/50 fight against Diego Corrales, even considered an underdog by many due to the size difference, but he pulled off one of his greatest performances that night to stop the favourite in round 10.

Despite defending his WBC World super-featherweight title five times before that, he was still considered untested up to then.

Now 47, ‘Money’ Mayweather retired with an undefeated record and won 15 major world championships spanning five weight classes from super featherweight to super-welterweight. 

Andre Ward (32-0, 16KO) – Andre Ward went straight from winning his gold medal at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games to his pro debut the same year in December, going straight in against an unbeaten fighter because of his elite amateur background.

He then defeated another four undefeated prospects on his way up the ranks and only fought against opponents with winning records.

It was when he reached 20-0 with a pair of national titles around his waist that he entered the Super Six World Boxing Classic, which would see him win his first world title against Mikkel Kessler at super-middleweight; then unify against Carl Froch; before moving up to light-heavyweight in 2015 to unify at a second weight against Sergey Kovalev in 2016, ending his career in June 2017 with an eighth-round stoppage victory over Kovalev in their rematch.

The ’Sun of a Gun’ was revered for his IQ, defence and masterful performances, barely taking a punch during his career due to his ability to read and manipulate fights.

Joe Calzaghe (46-0, 32KO) – ‘The Pride of Wales’ Joe Calzaghe was also known as the ‘Italian Dragon’, due to his late father and trainer, Enzo, moving from Sardinia to Wales.

Calzaghe turned pro in 1993 and stopped his first nine opponents in rounds one and two, but it wasn’t until that ninth opponent that he fought someone with a winning record.

Regardless, he kept knocking out his opponents until he met Chris Eubank in 1997, as a 22-0, 21KO prospect, and won the WBO World super-middleweight title via unanimous decision.

He went on to defend that WBO belt a record 21 times, whilst adding WBC, WBA, IBF and Ring Magazine titles, before finishing his career at light-heavyweight as a two-division Ring Magazine champion, defeating two Hall of Famers – Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr.

Rocky Marciano (49-0, 43KO) – Rocky Marciano held the record for a boxer with the most wins unbeaten for over 60 years until Mayweather pipped him purposely by one. However, he does remain the only world heavyweight champion in history to retire unbeaten, so that record still stands.

‘The Brockton Blockbuster’ was a real rough and tough guy in and outside the ring, growing up in poverty, he fought at a time when boxers were far tougher and more active, squeezing in all those 49 fights within seven years. That kind of activity is unheard of these days, he sometimes fought just one week apart and had 14 bouts in his first year.

But even then, there was still a process of building up, starting his career with four-rounders, then moving up to six, then to eight in his first dozen fights. He then fought in 29 10-round contests, eventually winning a world title eliminator against Harry ‘Kid’ Matthews.

He didn’t win the world title until his 43rd fight, in 1952, which was the NBA, NYSAC and Ring belts, making him the undisputed heavyweight champion. These belts were the world championships before the formation of governing bodies that are in existence today – the WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO.