Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Roberto Duran
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 Roberto Duran at #6.
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 Roberto Duran
Manos de Piedra, Hands of Stone, fought across five decades and four weight divisions, from a terrifying lightweight to a middleweight champion, over 119 professional bouts. His record of roughly 103-16 with 70 knockouts is anchored by one of the great division reigns in history: as lightweight champion he made 12 defenses and lost only one of his first 72 fights, a run of destructive pressure fighting, body punching and inside mastery that many rate the finest lightweight ever. He beat Ken Buchanan, Esteban DeJesus, Sugar Ray Leonard, in the 1980 Brawl in Montreal, Iran Barkley and Davey Moore, winning titles at lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight. The infamous No Mas surrender to Leonard in their rematch was a stain, but his ferocity, longevity, still competitive into his fifties, and sheer will made him a fighter's fighter and one of the most beloved and feared competitors the sport has known.