Muhammad Ali
Roberto Duran
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Roberto Duran leads 2 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Muhammad Ali at #2 and Roberto Duran at #6.
The case for Muhammad Ali
The most consequential figure in boxing history and, by his own and much of the world's reckoning, the greatest heavyweight. Ali finished 56-5 with 37 knockouts, but his record undersells him: a draft-refusal exile stole three-and-a-half prime years, and he returned to win the title twice more, becoming the first three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He beat a murderer's row of champions, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Ken Norton, in fights that defined the sport: the 1964 Liston upset, the Fight of the Century, the Rumble in the Jungle, and the Thrilla in Manila. As a young heavyweight he moved and jabbed like a middleweight, revolutionizing what a big man could do; as an older one he showed extraordinary chin and ring guile with the rope-a-dope. His athletic gifts, showmanship and moral courage made him the most recognized athlete on earth.
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.