Bert Sugar's All-Time Greatest Fighters

SI Staff | Mar 26, 2012

Bert Sugar's All-Time Greatest Fighters

Gene Tunney

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Iconic boxing writer and historian Bert Sugar, who died on March 25 of cardiac arrest, was a living, breathing encyclopedia of the sweet science. Here's a look at Sugar's 13 greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time, as appearing in his 2011 volume, The Ultimate Book of Boxing Lists . Heavyweight champion from 1926-28. Pro record: 61 wins, 40 KOs, one loss, one draw, one no contest.

Tony Canzoneri

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Featherweight champion 1928; lightweight champion 1930-33 and 1935-36; junior welterweight champion 1931-32 and 1933. Pro record: 137 wins, 44 KOs, 24 losses, 10 draws, four no-decisions.

Mickey Walker

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Welterweight champion 1922-26; middleweight champion 1926-31. Record: 93 wins, 60 KOs, 19 losses, four draws, 46 no-decisions.

Jack Johnson

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Heavyweight champion 1908-15. Pro record: 77 wins, 48 KOs, 13 losses, 14 draws, 19 no-decisions.

Jack Dempsey

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Heavyweight champion 1919-26. Pro record: 61 wins, 50 KOs, six losses, eight draws.

Roberto Duran

Manny Millan/SI

Lightweight champion 1972-79; welterweight champion 1980; junior middleweight champion 1983-84; middleweight champion 1989. Pro record: 103 wins, 70 KOs, 16 losses.

Muhammad Ali

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Heavyweight champion 1964-67, 1974-78 and 1978-79. Pro record: 56 wins, 37 KOs, five losses.

Benny Leonard

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Lightweight champion 1917-24. Pro record: 85 wins, 69 KOs, five losses, one draw, 115 no-decisions.

Harry Greb

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Middleweight champion 1923-26. Pro record: 105 wins, 48 KOs, eight losses, three draws, 170 no-decisions.

Joe Louis

AP

Heavyweight champion 1937-49. Pro record: 68 wins, 54 KOs, three losses.

Willie Pep

Anthony Camerano/AP

Featherweight champion 1942-48 and 1949-50. Pro record: 230 wins, 65 KOs, 11 losses, one draw.

Henry Armstrong

John Durant Collection/SI Picture Collection

Featherweight champion 1937-38; lightweight champion 1938-39; welterweight champion 1938-40. Pro record: 151 wins, 101 KOs, 21 losses, nine draws.

Sugar Ray Robinson

Neil Leifer/SI

Welterweight champion 1946-51; middleweight champion 1951-52, 1957-58 and 1958-60. Pro record: 175 wins, 109 KOs, 19 losses, six draws.