All-Time Heaviest Boxing Champions

SI Staff | Sep 11, 2011

All-Time Heaviest Boxing Champions

Nikolai Valuev

John Iacono/SI

The 7-foot Russian ( left ) won a 12-round majority decision against WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in 2005 to become the tallest and heaviest champion in boxing history.

Primo Carnera

J. A. Hampton/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

"The Ambling Alp" stopped Jack Sharkey in the sixth round to win the world heavyweight title on June 29, 1933.

Lennox Lewis

AP

Lewis recaptured the WBC heavyweight title with a fifth-round TKO of Oliver McCall on Feb. 7, 1997.

Samuel Peter

Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

"The Nigerian Nightmare" earned the WBC heavyweight title with a sixth-round TKO of Oleg Maskaev on Mar. 8, 2008.

George Foreman

John Iacono/SI

The 45-year-old Foreman, who had weighed just 217½ when he stopped Joe Frazier for the title in 1973, tipped the scales at 250 for his historic knockout victory over Michael Moorer on Nov. 5, 1994.

Frank Bruno

AP

After three losses in heavyweight title fights, the south Londoner finally broke through near the end of his career. At 33, Bruno outpointed Oliver McCall for the WBC heavyweight title at Wembley Stadium on Sept. 2, 1995.

Vitali Klitschko

AP

The elder Klitschko brother captured the WBO heavyweight title with a second-round knockout of Herbie Hide on June 26, 1999.

Wladimir Klitschko

Alexander Heimann/Bongarts/Getty Images

Vitali's younger brother won the IBF heavyweight title with a seventh-round TKO of Chris Byrd on Apr. 22, 2006.

John Ruiz

AP

"The Quiet Man" ( right ) outpointed Hasim Rahman for the interim WBA heavyweight title on Dec. 13, 2003.

John Tate

Tate, a bronze medalist for the United States at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, won the vacant WBA heavyweight title on Oct. 20, 1979, going on the road to beat Gerrie Coetzee in Pretoria, South Africa.