The 50 greatest fighters of the 21st century have been named and ranked by Ranker, as well as its readers.
There are many legendary athletes named as well as those that are still in their hayday right now.
The list features an array of fighters featured in the heavyweight division, especially those amongst the top 10, and we see a fair few Englishmen represented across the top 50.
The top 50:
50. David Lemieux (41-4)
49. Arthur Abraham (47-6)
48. Brian Viloria (38-6)
47. Kubrat Pulev (28-1)
46. Naseem Hamed (36-1)
45. Denis Lebedev (32-3, 1 NC)
44. Jermain Taylor (33-4-1)
43. Tomasz Adamek (53-6)
42. Marcos Maidana (35-5)
41. Billy Joe Saunders (29-0)
40. Kelly Pavlik (40-2)
39. Guillermo Rigondeaux (20-1, 1 NC)
38. Mikkel Kessler (46-3)
37: Alexander Povetkin (35-2-1)
36: Oleksandr Usyk (17-0)
35: Danny Garcia (36-2)
34: Sergio Martinez (51-3-2)
33: Timothy Bradley (33-2-1, 1 NC)
32: Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr (51-4-1, 1 NC)
31. Ricky Hatton (45-3)
30: Carl Froch (33-2)
29: Nonito Donaire (40-6)
28: Amir Khan (34-5)
27: Roman Gonzalez (48-2)
26: Deontay Wilder (42-0-1)
25: Terence Crawford (36-0)
24: Tyson Fury (29-0-1)
23: Shane Mosley (49-10-1, 1 NC)
22: Julio Cesar Chavez (107-6-2)
21: Anthony Joshua (23-1)
20: Erik Morales (52-9)
19: Marco Antonio Barrera (67-7, 1 NC)
18: Vitali Klitschko (45-2)
17: Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1)
16: Sergey Kovalev (34-4-1)
15: Andre Ward (32-0)
14: Felix Trinidad (42-3)
13: Vasyl Lomachenko (14-1)
12: Saul Alvarez (53-1-2)
11: Miguel Cotto (41-6)
10: Joe Calzaghe (46-0)
9: Bernard Hopkins (55-8-2, 2 NC)
8: Oscar De La Hoya (39-6)
7: Lennox Lewis (41-2-1)
6: Mike Tyson (50-6, 2 NC)
At age 20, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history, and from there his career only got better.
He was the first heavyweight boxer to hold the WBA, WBC and IBF titles simultaneously and he also went on to unify them in succession.
He retired in 2005 following a loss to Kevin McBride, after a two-decade-long outstanding boxing career.
5: Wladimir Klitschko (64-5)
The Ukrainian boasts being a two-time world heavyweight champion, as well as the unified WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring magazine titles.
He is known in boxing for his outstanding knockout power, as well as his exceptional footwork and mobility, which is rare for fighters of his stature.
Klitschko retired in 2017, three months after losing to Anthony Joshua in an eleventh-round TKO at Wembley in London.
4: Roy Jones Jnr (66-9)
Throughout his extraordinary career, Jones held multiple world championships in four weight classes; middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.
He started his career as a light middleweight who went on to win a heavyweight title – the only boxer in history to do so.
The American is regarded for his incredible power, speed and athleticism.
3: Gennady Golovkin (40-1-1)
The two-time middleweight world champion has also held the IBF and IBO titles since 2019, as well as previously holding the unified WBA (Super), WBC, IBF and IBO titles.
Golovkin was dubbed the world’s best boxer by The Ring magazine from September 2017 to September 2018.
‘GGG’ last fought in 2020 and at only 39 years old, it’s likely we’ll see him in action again in the future.
2: Floyd Mayweather Jnr (50-0)
“Money” Mayweather boasts one of the most incredible boxing records of all time with him still being undefeated throughout his career.
He won fifteen major world championships, some of those being: super featherweight to light middleweight, Ring magazine title in five weight classes, lineal championship in four weight classes (2x at welterweight).
He retired in 2017 after defeating UFC star Conor McGregor, before returning to the ring for two exhibition fights against undefeated kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in 2018 and YouTuber Logan Paul in 2021.
1: Manny Pacquiao (62-7-2)
The “PacMan” is the only boxer in history to have won twelve titles in eight different weight divisions, the first boxer to win the lineal championship in five different weight divisions and the first boxer to win world titles in four of the original eight weight divisions of boxing.
He has been named Fighter of the Decade, Fighter of the Year as well as an array of other accolades.
Pacquiao is known by many as the greatest of all time in boxing and his legacy is one that is forever ingrained into boxing history.
