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The definitive top 25 heavyweight boxers of all-time
Dec 24, 2024
The question is: who are the top 25 heavyweight boxers of all time?
The hardest part of the answer is choosing between legends with the most powerful claims to be No 1.
Nine months ago, Mail Sport's Jeff Powell provided the answer with a definitive list outlining the greatest boxers to have laced up the gloves.
However, Oleksandr Usyk's successive wins over Tyson Fury has seen the conversation reopen, with debate surrounding the Ukrainian's place among the greats well and truly alive.
Muhammad Ali was known as 'The Greatest', but where does he stack up compared to other iconic fighters like Joe Frazier, George Forman and Lennox Lewis? And what of Tyson Fury after his torrid year inside the ring?
Below are Jeff's picks in descending order.
25. Riddick BoweÂ
The former undisputed world champion disputed an epic trilogy with Holyfield in which he won the first and third fights and lost the one in between on the wild night when a para-glider crash-landed into the open ring constructed in the car park at Caesars Palace on the Vegas Strip. That was Big Daddy’s only defeat but the record disguises how he ducked Lewis by chucking his belt into a London dustbin and threw away what might have been a great career by putting huge eating above heavy training.
24. Ken NortonÂ
Was elevated to world champion after he beat Jimmy Young in a final eliminator and then Leon Spinks preferred to relinquish the belt rather than fight the man who put up three immense performances against Ali. Winning their first fight, losing the second on a controversial decision and being beaten by The Greatest on a split decision in the third.
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