1932-1970 American boxer When Sonny Liston became the world heavyweight boxing champ by knocking out Floyd Patterson in 1962, he hoped his criminal past and unsavory reputation could be put behind him. It was too late. At a time of growing racial unrest, he was cast in the public imagination as the angry, dangerous black man. Even the NAACP had asked "good guy" Floyd Patterson not to…
1935- American boxer Floyd Patterson became the youngest heavyweight champion, a record he held onto until a young fighter by the name of Mike Tyson entered the ring almost four decades later. A fast-moving and clever heavyweight with a snappy punch, Patterson was by no means the strongest of fighters, but he had resilience and heart, and he called upon his determination to overcome severe psychol…
1973- American boxer Throughout most of the 1990s Felix Trinidad was perhaps the most underrated professional boxer in the world. In a sport where the heavyweights get most of the publicity, recognition of Trinidad was hampered further by the more glamorous of the smaller champions. By the end of the decade, however, Trinidad proved he was a fighter to be reckoned with. Felix "Tito" …
1962- American boxer Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield is a three-time world heavyweight champion who consistently beat heavier opponents through determination and faith in himself. But for many, he will always be the man who got his ear bitten off by Mike Tyson. That event actually was a perfect illustration of the differences between Holyfield's calm, professional style and that …
1954- American boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler was a hard-hitting lefty who could switch his stance and also box right-handed. The world middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987, Hagler was a gutsy, aggressive fighter. Over the course of his 14 years as a professional boxer, he posted a record of 62-3-2 and successfully defended his title 12 times before losing to Sugar Ray Leonard in an controversia…
1897-1978 American boxer Considered one of the giants of sports in the 1920s, Gene Tunney became heavyweight boxing champion of the world when he defeated Jack Dempsey in 1926. In a rematch with Dempsey in 1927, Tunney held on to his title in the hotly debated "battle of the long count," Gene Tunney in which Tunney got the benefit of an extra long count when the referee, follo…
1858-1918 American boxer John L. Sullivan was the last of the "bare-knuckle" boxing champions. Heavyweight champion of the world from 1882 to 1892, he lost his title to Jim Corbett in the first heavyweight boxing championship to be fought with gloves. Considered by many to be the first American sports star, Sullivan was undefeated in his twenty-seven-year career until his bout with C…
1942- American boxer His nickname, "The Greatest," almost says it all. The fact that it was self-anointed says the rest. Today, Muhammad Ali is the universally admired three-time heavyweight champion, lauded by boxing fans and civil rights leaders, both in America and throughout the world. He is remembered respectfully as the man of principle who threw away his Olympic medal in disgu…
1966- American boxer He was one of the best, and he blew it. The youngest heavyweight champion in history, the most inspiring champ since Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson became the most notorious modern boxer when he went to jail for rape, and then, in his comeback tour, for biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear. Even before that, Tyson was the man who bragged about wanting to kill his opp…
1973- American boxer Called the "Golden Boy" since he became the only American boxer to win a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Oscar De La Hoya has always had a simple plan in the ring: "You should hit but not get hit," as he once explained it to a Sports Illustrated reporter. The plan seems to be working. By the time of the Olympics, De La Hoya's amate…
1914-1981 American boxer In his day, heavyweight champion Joe Louis was the most famous black man in America, virtually the only one who regularly appeared in the white newspapers. By breaking the color barrier that had been imposed on boxing after black heavyweight Jack Johnson outraged white sensibilities, Joe Louis began a process that would eventually open all of big-league sports to black ath…
1895-1983 American boxer William "Jack" Harrison Dempsey ushered in the age of big-time sports. His rise from hobo to heavyweight champion to Hollywood celebrity not only gave boxing the stamp of legitimacy, but became the prototype for every superstar athlete that followed. His popularity during and after his boxing career overshadowed all of his contemporaries, including Babe Ruth.…
1921- American boxer Jake LaMotta grew up a street kid whose skills with his fists earned him the amateur light heavyweight championship's Diamond Belt. At nineteen, he began a pro career that would include eighty-three wins (including thirty by knockouts), nineteen losses, and four draws. After retiring from boxing, he developed a comedy routine that drew on his fighting experiences and hi…
1956- American boxer Michael Spinks was a virtual unknown, a tough young fighter from a rough part of St. Louis, when he and his older brother Leon rocketed to fame by Michael Spinks both winning gold medals in boxing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. With his "Spinks Jinx," a mean cross-over right-handed punch, Spinks was unbeatable for over ten years. His one and only professio…
1921-1989 American boxer Five-time middleweight champion of the world, Sugar Ray Robinson is remembered as the greatest boxer ever produced by the sport. He won Golden Gloves championships in both featherweight and welterweight classifications and retired undefeated as the world welterweight champion in 1952. He managed also a brief career as a tap dancer, and his Ray Robinson Enterprises spanned …
1905- German boxer Widely vilified as a willing propaganda tool of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, Max Schmeling was Max Schmeling nevertheless one of Europe's greatest boxers of all time. His professional career stretched from 1924 to 1948, during which time he compiled a career record of fifty-six wins, ten losses, and four ties. World Heavyweight Champion from 1930 to 1932, Sch…
1922-1990 American boxer In his ten years as a professional boxer, Rocky Graziano held the title of World Middleweight Champion for less than a year; yet he remained one of the most famous athletes in the sport through the time of his death in 1990. Indeed, the 1955 film adaptation of his autobiography, Somebody Up There Likes Me, a series of appearances on comedy shows and television advertisemen…
1923-1969 American boxer Rocky Marciano is the only heavyweight boxing champion ever to retire without being defeated. With a perfect 49-0 record—which included forty-three knockouts—he started his professional boxing career in 1947, and reigned as champion from 1952 until his retirement Rocky Marciano in 1956. He ranks among boxing's greats, along with such notables as…
1956- American boxer Olympic gold medallist Sugar Ray Leonard generated broad interest in the sport of boxing during the 1970s and into the 1980s. In 1981 he beat Thomas Hearns for the unification of the WBC and WBA world welterweight titles, winning a prize purse of more than $10 million. It was an unprecedented sum for a welter-weight bout, in a sport where the spoils of fame rested traditionall…
1866-1933 American boxer Heavyweight champion boxer "Gentleman" Jim Corbett forever changed his sport's image as a brawling ground for hooligans, and legitimized it as a professional sport. Before Corbett won his championship bout in 1892, boxing was perceived as mainly a test of raw power. Corbett brought strategy to the game, beating his heavier, stronger opponent, John L. S…
1949- American boxer George Foreman The George Foreman of today, genial, gentlemanly, and widely popular, bears little resemblance to his early thuggish person. Indeed, some have called him a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in reverse, who transformed himself from the monster into the good and pleasant fellow. He captured the hearts of boxing fans when he reentered heavyweight compe…
1931- American boxing promoter Don King With his trademark "gravity-defying" hair, the image of Don King has hovered over professional boxing since he helped put together the "Rumble in the Jungle" in 1974, in which Muhammad Ali regained his championship title from George Foreman. All the elements that have marked King's career came together in his first b…
1914-1994 American boxer One of the most persistent boxers of the 20th century, Jersey Joe Walcott refused to give up his dream of winning the world heavyweight title. Long after most boxers would have abandoned all hope, Walcott battled on. On July 18, 1951, he became, at the age of thirty-seven, the oldest boxer ever to become the heavyweight champ, knocking out Ezzard Charles in the seventh rou…
1913-1998 American boxer Archie Moore was one of the most colorful and respected figures in the modern history of boxing. His professional career, which included well over 200 bouts, spanned from 1936 to 1963 and included matches against Rocky Marciano, Cassius Clay (as Muhammad Ali was then called), and Floyd Patterson. The world light-heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1962, Moore's most n…
1878-1946 American boxer Jack Johnson was the first African American to hold the title of world heavyweight champion, a distinction he earned by defeating Tommy Burns in a 1908 fight. During an era of blatant racism, Johnson was a flamboyant character who provoked a worldwide search for the "Great White Hope" who could defeat him. Johnson, both as a brilliant fighter and as a man who…
1965- British boxer In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lennox Lewis was the boxing heavyweight champion of the world. He was Great Britain's first heavyweight champion since 1897 when he became the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion in 1993. After not posting a loss in his 109 amateur bouts, Lewis had a professional record of 40-2-1 through 2002. While Lewis had a great right, he oft…
1969- American boxer Christy Martin, named the best woman boxer in the world by the World Boxing Council in 1996, has, in the words of Bob Raissman, writing in the Daily News of New York, "put women's boxing on the map." Represented by the famous promoter Don King, Martin has worked to bring the sport of woman's boxing from the status of a fringe or novelty sport into w…
1944- American boxer Joe Frazier Holder of the unified World Heavyweight Champion title from 1970 to 1973, Joe Frazier is best remembered for the title fight that he lost to Muhammad Ali in the "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975. Yet his matches with Ali were only part of the rags-to-riches story of Frazier's life. Growing up in the rural community of Laurel Bay, South Carolin…
