Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Julio Cesar Chavez
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Floyd Mayweather Jr. at #5 and Julio Cesar Chavez at #9.
The case for Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather retired at a perfect 50-0, breaking Rocky Marciano's iconic mark, having won 15 world titles across five weight divisions from super featherweight to super welterweight. The most defensively brilliant fighter of his era, he built his mastery on the Philly shell, elite reflexes, ring IQ and pinpoint counter right hands, making elite opponents miss and pay for two decades. He beat a long list of champions, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Canelo Alvarez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto and Shane Mosley, and was virtually never in trouble across 26 years. He also transformed the business, becoming boxing's biggest pay-per-view attraction and generating over $1.3 billion in career PPV revenue; the 2015 Pacquiao fight alone drew roughly 4.6 million buys. Critics note a cautious, risk-averse style and carefully timed matchmaking, but the ledger, unbeaten, five divisions, a generation of top opponents defeated, is nearly unanswerable.
The case for Julio Cesar Chavez
The greatest Mexican fighter and one of the finest body punchers who ever lived, Chavez was unbeaten in his first 90 professional fights, a run of 89-0-1 spanning 1980 to 1994 that is among the longest in boxing history. He finished roughly 107-6-2 with 86 knockouts and won world titles in three divisions, super featherweight, lightweight and light welterweight. He holds the record for most world title fights, 37, and title-fight wins, 31. His signature nights include the last-second, near-miraculous 12th-round stoppage of Meldrick Taylor in 1990 with the fight slipping away, and a title defense before roughly 132,000 fans at Estadio Azteca in 1993, a record boxing crowd. His method, methodical pressure, a granite chin, and merciless work to the liver and ribs that broke opponents down over rounds, made him a national hero in Mexico and a fixture at the top of pound-for-pound lists through his prime.