Best Undisputed Heavyweight Champions in Boxing History
There’s one mantra that reigns supreme in boxing: Hurry up and wait. And wait we did, but wow was it worth it. Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk finally went to war in Saudi Arabia and the action didn’t disappoint. In the end, it was the Ukrainian who had his hand raised after a dominant end to a classic match up, and after collecting all the belts at cruiserweight before moving up and doing the same with the big boys, he certainly deserves to be recognised as one of the best undisputed heavyweight champions in boxing history.
After that impressive victory over the Gypsy King, Usyk joins an esteemed list of heavyweight to possess all the marbles, and it’s a list worth delving into. Here’s our top six at Bodog Sportsbook.
6. Rocky Marciano
Only one heavyweight champion managed to retire undefeated and stay that way. Marciano (49-0, 43 KOs) took the undisputed title from Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952, then defended it six times over the next three years before hanging up the gloves at age 32.
That relatively short career is part of the reason Marciano’s name isn’t higher on this list. Quality of opposition is another; the only boxer ever to go the full 15 rounds with Marciano was Ezzard Charles, who was more respected as a light heavyweight.
There’s no denying the power that Marciano held in his right hand. The son of Italian immigrants to Brockton, Massachusetts won each of his first 16 fights by early KO/TKO, nine of those in the first round, and he nearly killed Carmine Vingo with a right uppercut at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1949.
Marciano’s two title defences against Charles were both epic, but his 1952 bout with Walcott provided his signature moment. Marciano, who was behind on the judges’ scorecards, took the belt in Round 13 by dropping Walcott with a right hook – affectionately called “Suzie Q” by the press. A December 1963 issue of Boxing Illustrated claimed that Marciano’s right hook tested as having enough energy to “lift 1,000 pounds one foot off the ground.”
5. Jack Dempsey
Of all the box-office attractions in this sport’s long history, Jack Dempsey may have been the biggest. The “Manassa Mauler” (from his birthplace in Colorado) was the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926, and was named the greatest fighter of the first half of the 20th Century by the Associated Press.
Dempsey (68-6-9, 53 KOs) also gave boxing its first $1-million gate in 1921 when he successfully defended the title against Georges Carpentier, in front of 91,000 fans at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in Jersey City, New Jersey. They called it the Fight of the Century, a badge of honour that will appear again on our list.
It’s not the fight Dempsey is most remembered for. That would be the 1927 “Long Count” fight at Chicago’s Soldier Field versus Gene Tunney, who had taken the title off Dempsey the previous year. Dempsey knocked Tunney down in the seventh with a left hook, but was slow to take a neutral corner, giving Tunney the valuable seconds he needed to beat the referee’s 10-count. Tunney eventually retained the title in a 10-round unanimous decision – the same result from their first fight one year earlier.
Dempsey retired after that second loss to Tunney, but his place in boxing history was secure. Some boxing historians would have Tunney on this list instead because of those two victories, and it’s a fair argument to make, but Dempsey was well past his prime when they fought.
4. George Foreman
Here’s another somewhat controversial call: George Foreman over Joe Frazier. We’re giving Foreman the edge here because of his comeback and his second reign as heavyweight champion, although that reign wasn’t undisputed – Foreman (76-5, 68 KOs) took the WBA and IBF straps off Michael Moorer in 1994, but Lennox Lewis was still the WBC champ at the time.
There’s no disputing Foreman’s first reign. The big Texan made his name in 1973 when he knocked out Frazier in the second round of their “Sunshine Showdown” fight in Kingston, Jamaica. Then Foreman held onto the title with quick wins over Jose Roman and Ken Norton before dropping the belt to Muhammad Ali in 1974, in the first loss of Foreman’s career.
Foreman was already a legend when he retired in 1977, but he came back 10 years later at the age of 38 as an entirely different man – much larger, and much more personable. It was all part of the promotion for his George Foreman Grill, but what started as something of a joke became serious when Foreman started beating the likes of Bert Cooper and Gerry Cooney.
By 1991, Foreman was in position to take the undisputed title off Evander Holyfield, and though he lost by unanimous decision, Foreman put up a game fight, enough to keep him in the heavyweight picture. Knocking Moorer out in the 10th round at age 45 was like a fever dream for boxing fans, even if the WBA and IBF eventually stripped Foreman for not defending against their assigned No. 1 contenders.
3. Lennox Lewis
Born in London, England, before moving to Canada with his mother, Lennox Lewis’ connections to our nation have no impact on his high rank on our list of the best undisputed heavyweight champions in boxing history. His actions inside the ring are more than enough.
It would take 12 bouts before somebody heard the final bell against The Lion, with Lewis claiming the WBC title after just four years in the professional ranks. A surprise defeat at the hands of Oliver McCall in 1994 was avenged in explosive fashion in February 1997, to kick-start a run of title defences that would include victories (and one controversial draw) over Evander Holyfield, Shannon Briggs and Michael Grant.
In 2001, Lewis would suffer one of the most surprising defeats in the history of the sport, when he was stopped by Hasim Rahman in 2001, only to avenge that loss in style just seven months later in Las Vegas.
Lewis had two more big-money fights after regaining his crowns, and would finally face off with the feared Mike Tyson in June 2022. Iron Mike was well past his prime by this point, but Lewis would put to bed that rivalry by dropping an exhausted Tyson in the eighth round.
Lewis retired on top after a dramatic victory over Vitali Klitschko (who would go on to dominate the division alongside his brother) a year later, which saw the Ukrainian pulled out due to a cut.
Few fighters have the privilege of going out on a win, and even less go out having beaten every opponent they faced. Lewis did both, and is therefore a fitting no.3 spot in our hard-hitting list of the best undisputed heavyweight champions in boxing history.
2. Joe Louis
It’s almost a shame having to put the “Brown Bomber” in the No. 2 slot. There was simply no finer boxer from his generation. Louis (66-3, 52 KOs) holds the record for all weight classes with 25 successful title defences, winning the undisputed title in 1937 off James J. Braddock and keeping it all the way until his first retirement in 1949.
That retirement didn’t last long. Louis, an Alabama native whose family moved to Detroit (they named the Joe Louis Arena after him), owed some $500,000 to the IRS, so he came back in 1950 to fight the aforementioned Ezzard Charles for the title at age 36. Only 22,357 fans showed up at Yankee Stadium to see Louis get beaten from pillar to post in a clear unanimous decision for Charles.
Eight forgettable fights followed after that, all victories for Louis, then he ended his career in 1951 by losing to Marciano via eighth-round TKO at Madison Square Garden. Louis tried to make ends meet by taking up professional wrestling, doing quiz shows on television, and working as a greeter at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He was also an avid golfer, helping to force the PGA to drop its “Caucasian only” membership rules in 1961.
Louis’s celebrity status grew enough over the years to bring him out of debt, thanks in part to his ongoing friendship with German fighter Max Schmeling. They first met inside the squared circle in 1936, with Schmeling handing Louis his first-ever defeat. By the time they met again in 1938, for what was billed as the Fight of the Century, Louis was the champion, and Nazi Germany was on the brink of World War II. Louis won their rematch with a first-round TKO, in what is considered arguably the most important fight in boxing history.
1. Muhammad Ali
“Whatever I said before, I don’t mean it, ‘cause Joe Louis was the greatest,” Ali (56-5, 37 KOs) told The Washington Post after Louis passed away in 1981. But it’s nearly unanimous today that Ali was indeed The Greatest. He had three separate reigns as undisputed heavyweight champion, more than anyone else – although his first reign in 1964 saw the WBA strip the Louisville native, known then as Cassius Clay, for granting Sonny Liston a rematch.
Ali’s second reign in 1967 was even shorter. After beating Ernie Terrell by unanimous decision to unify the titles, and defending them one month later versus Zora Folley, Ali was stripped again for refusing to enter the US Armed Forces, having been drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. It wasn’t until 1971 that Ali’s name was fully cleared.
That was also the year Ali lost to Frazier in his first attempt to regain the title. They called that one The Fight of the Century as well, and now that we’re in the new millennium, that name has withstood the test of time. Frazier handed Ali his first professional loss, earning a unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden.
Ali redeemed himself by beating Frazier in 1974 at Super Fight II, and again in 1975 at the Thrilla in Manilla, but it was his eighth-round knockout of Foreman at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle that gave Ali his third undisputed title reign – one that lasted four years, until his upset loss to Leon Spinks.
Only five fighters since Spinks have been the undisputed heavyweight champion, Lewis being the most recent until Usyk etched his name into the history books, and onto our list of the best undisputed heavyweight champions in boxing history.
Will Fury get his revenge or will Usyk cement his legacy in the rematch? The boxing odds are live at Bodog Sportsbook. Not only that, we also pack a punch over at Bodog Casino. Our Pride Fight game review should get the blood pumping, we’ll catch you over there. Seconds out…