Rocco Francis Marchegiano, better known as Rocky Marciano, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955, and held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956. He is the only heavyweight champion to have finished his career undefeated. His six title defenses were against Jersey Joe Walcott, Roland La Starza, Ezzard Charles (twice), Don Cockell and Archie Moore.
Arnold Raymond Cream, best known as Jersey Joe Walcott, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1930 to 1953. He held the NYSAC, NBA, and The Ring heavyweight titles from 1951 to 1952, and broke the record for the oldest man to win the title, at the age of 37. That record would eventually be broken in 1994 by 45-year-old George Foreman. Despite holding the world heavyweight title for a relatively short period of time, Walcott was regarded among the best heavyweights in the world during the 1940s and 1950s.
Ezzard Mack Charles, known as the Cincinnati Cobra, was an American professional boxer and World Heavyweight Champion. Known for his slick defense and precision, he is often considered the greatest light heavyweight boxer of all time. As of May 2021, BoxRec ranks Charles as the second greatest boxer of all time, pound for pound, behind Floyd Mayweather Jr. Charles defeated numerous Hall of Fame fighters in three different weight classes. Charles retired with a record of 95 wins, 25 losses and 1 draw. He was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1990.
Meldrick Taylor is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1984 to 2002. He is a two-weight world champion, having held the IBF junior welterweight title from 1988 to 1990, and the WBA welterweight title from 1991 to 1992. As an amateur, Taylor won a gold medal in the featherweight division at the 1984 Summer Olympics.
Samuel Edgar Langford, known as the Boston Tar Baby, Boston Terror, and Boston Bonecrusher, was a Black Canadian boxing standout of the early part of the 20th century. Called the "Greatest Fighter Nobody Knows", by ESPN, Langford is considered by many boxing historians to be one of the greatest fighters of all time. Originally from Weymouth Falls, a small community in Nova Scotia, Canada. He was known as "The Boston Bonecrusher", "The Boston Terror", and his most famous nickname, "The Boston Tar Baby". Langford stood 5 ft 6+1⁄2 in (1.69 m) and weighed 185 lb (84 kg) in his prime. He fought from lightweight to heavyweight and defeated many world champions and legends of the time in each weight class. Considered a devastating puncher even at heavyweight, Langford was rated No. 2 by The Ring on their list of "100 greatest punchers of all time". One boxing historian described Langford as "experienced as a heavyweight James Toney with the punching power of Mike Tyson".
John "Tiger" Linwood Fox, or Tiger Jack Fox as he was better known, was a colorful, hard punching, American light heavyweight boxer. Fox fought from 1928 to 1950.
Joe Gans was an American professional boxer. Gans was rated the greatest Lightweight boxer of all-time by boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder, Nat Fleischer. Known as the "Old Master", he became the first African-American World Boxing Champion of the 20th century, reigning continuously as World Lightweight Champion from 1902–1908, having defended the title against 15 times versus 13 separate boxers. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
Joe Walcott, also known as Barbados Joe Walcott to distinguish him from the more contemporary Guyanese boxer known by the same name, was a Bajan-born professional boxer who reigned as the World Welterweight Champion from 1901 to 1906, becoming the first black man ever to capture the title. He was elected to The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1955 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.
Jermain Taylor is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, having won the WBA (Undisputed), WBC, IBF, WBO, Ring magazine, and lineal titles in 2005 by beating Bernard Hopkins, and in doing so ending Hopkins' twelve-year reign as middleweight champion. This made Taylor the first, and to date, only male boxer in history to claim each title from all four major boxing sanctioning organizations in a single fight. He once again defeated Hopkins six months later, making him the only fighter to have defeated Hopkins twice. He retired as a world champion in the months that followed his capture of the IBF middleweight title for a second time, after making a substantial recovery from a brain injury sustained earlier in his career.
Henry Adetokunboh Akinwande is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2008. He held the WBO heavyweight title from 1996 to 1997, as well as the Commonwealth heavyweight title in 1993, and the European heavyweight title from 1993 to 1994.
Theo James Walcott is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Southampton and previously for the English national team.
Joseph Erskine was a heavyweight boxer from the Butetown district of Cardiff, Wales. He was an Amateur Boxing Association Champion, Inter-Services Champion, and British Army Champion in 1953. He began fighting as a professional in 1954 and was trained by Freddie Elvin. He held the British heavyweight title from August 1956 to June 1958. In all, he won 45 of his 54 professional bouts, losing 8, with one drawn. His best wins were against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Dick Richardson, Uli Ritter, Jack Bodell, Johnny Williams, Joe Bygraves and Willie Pastrano.
Joe Baksi was a top heavyweight contender who defeated fighters such as Tami Mauriello, Lee Savold, Lou Nova, and Freddie Mills, while losing decisions to Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles.
Sandy Ferguson was a professional boxer. Born in New Brunswick, Canada Ferguson moved to Chelsea, Massachusetts with his family at age 13. He began his professional career there in 1898. Ferguson won his first three fights with ease, defeating Sid West on points twice and Paul Watson via first-round knockout. Ferguson remained undefeated up until June 1900, racking up a record of 10-0-6. None of Ferguson's first 16 fights, however, were against a top contender. On December 17, 1900, Ferguson suffered his first major setback when he was outpointed in a bout with veteran Dick O'Brien. Two months later he was disqualified in the same round against the same Dick O'Brien. After a lightning knockout of John MacDonald at Gloucester, Massachusetts in April, Ferguson left the USA and headed to England, where he strung together a record of 6-1-2 before returning to America in January 1903. Ferguson's first fight after returning from Britain was against the brilliant boxer George Byers. The match ended in a prearranged draw, as Ferguson was dropped four times by Byers. After this match, however, Ferguson gained popularity by avenging his previous losses to fellow ex-pat Canadian Dick O'Brien by scoring a sixth-round knockout on 25 March 1903. This was followed by a twelve-round decision over George Byers.
Richard Alexander Richardson was a heavyweight boxer from the Maesglas area of Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. He held the European heavyweight title from March 1960 to June 1962. In all, he won 31 of his 47 professional bouts, losing 14, with two drawn. He was one of a quartet of British heavyweights in the 1950s and early 1960s, along with Henry Cooper, Joe Erskine and Brian London, who held out the possibility of a challenging for a heavyweight world champion.
Charles Henry "Jack" Blackburn was an American boxer and boxing trainer. Fighting in the first half of his career as a lightweight and later a welterweight, he was known for an exceptional defense and fought many men above his weight class, including six bouts with the great Sam Langford. He fought Joe Gans three times in no-decision bouts, defeating him once according to newspaper accounts and made good showings against Harry Lewis, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, and Harry Greb. He found most of his fame training 1937 World Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis, but also had a significant role in training 1926 Lightweight Champion Sammy Mandell. He helped to train World Bantamweight Champion Bud Taylor and World Light-Heavyweight Champion John Henry Lewis as well.
Rube Ferns was an American boxer of the early 20th century. Nicknamed "The Kansas Rube", he held the World Welterweight Championship in 1900 and 1901. He was formidable and scrappy with a good punch.
George Henry "Kid" Lavigne was boxing's first widely recognized World Lightweight champion, winning the vacant title on June 1, 1896.
Frank Childs, "The Crafty Texan", was an African American boxer who fought professionally out of Chicago from 1892 to 1911 and twice held the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. Fighting at a weight of between 160 and 185 lbs., the short, stocky Childs fought middleweights, light-heavyweights and heavyweights. He had a powerful punch.
William "Honey" Mellody was an American boxer who took the Welterweight Championship of the World on October 16, 1906, defeating former champion Joe Walcott in a fifteen-round points decision in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
