The best boxers in the world are those that are not only the strongest in the sport, but are also the most influential. Some of these boxers include Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Victor Ortiz and Larry Holmes. In this article, we will take a look at all of these boxers, how they became so famous, and how they have changed the sport.
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano is one of the most famous boxers of all time. He was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, a town outside Boston. In fact, he was the first of six children of Italian immigrants. His father encouraged him to pursue his dreams.
Rocky started working out with homemade weights when he was a child. By age ten, he dropped out of school. But his parents continued to encourage him to follow his passion.
At twenty-five, he turned pro and began his professional boxing career. At his first bout, he won, and he soon became a world heavyweight champion. When he retired, he had a 49-0 record and 43 knockouts.
One of the most important things about his fights was his ability to use his powerful punches in the late rounds. Rocky had a granite-like chin.
He was also a natural athlete. As a kid, he was a baseball and football player. After retiring from boxing, he became a sports commentator.
The story told by Sports Illustrated said that Marciano had a number of sexual encounters with women, and was involved with Mafia figures. Moreover, he loaned over $100,000 to a Cleveland loan shark.
Regardless of the truth, the story painted a very dark picture of his life after the ring. It was not just his addiction to cocaine that troubled him. And his wife, Barbara Cousins, was not pleased.
Sugar Ray Robinson
If you’re an avid boxing fan, you probably have heard of Sugar Ray Robinson. He is considered to be one of the greatest boxers of all time.
Robinson started boxing at a young age. Although he was a professional boxer, he also had an active career as an actor and dancer. In fact, he owned a nightclub in Harlem, New York.
Robinson was known for his speed and power. His shots landed at breakneck speed and his accuracy was remarkable.
Sugar Ray was one of the few boxers to have won five world championships. He was also the first to win a middleweight title and a welterweight title.
After a brief hiatus, Sugar Ray returned to the ring in 1954. The following year, he won his fifth middleweight title, a feat only matched by Muhammad Ali.
In the midst of a career that spanned decades, Sugar Ray was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, a condition that led to his death in Los Angeles at age 67. However, he kept his style up until the end of his life.
A number of critics claim that Sugar Ray was the best pound for pound boxer of the last 75 years. While the sport is physically demanding, boxers must also possess a mental edge to endure the beatings.
After retiring, Robinson went on to work in show business. In 1969, he started the Sugar Ray Robinson Youth Foundation for inner-city Los Angeles.
Jack Dempsey
Jack Dempsey is one of the most influential boxers of the twentieth century. A boxer who played to the raucous and exciting spirit of the Roaring Twenties, he became famous through his fights and personal appearances. In his 67 fights, he won 53 and lost only six. He went on to become one of the most prominent American sports figures of the 1920s and the first boxer with gate receipts of over one million dollars.
Born in Manassa, Colorado, Patrick Dempsey was raised in a poor family. He left his home in his mid-teens to escape his father’s plight and begin a better life. After training for professional boxing, he fought in New York City.
Before his debut, he was nicknamed “Kid Blackie”. As a teenager, he fought local bar fights and earned money from his work. But as the Great Depression loomed, he found it harder to earn a living.
When the war came, he joined the Coast Guard Reserve and the New York National Guard. Then, he was stationed in the USS Arthur Middleton, a transport ship, for the Okinawa invasion.
After the war, Dempsey returned to the West. By this time, his nickname had changed to Manassa Mauler. His fame was such that he was offered a commission in the Coast Guard.
Upon his return, Dempsey opened a restaurant and training facility in New York City. He then joined the Coast Guard and served as lieutenant commander.
Joseph Louis Barrow
If you’re looking for a boxer to watch, you don’t have to look far. Joe Louis is a World Heavyweight Boxing Champion who has been the most popular figure in boxing for more than four decades.
Born May 13, 1914, in Lafayette, Alabama, Joe Louis was the seventh of eight children. His father Munn Barrow was a sharecropper and his mother Lillie was a homemaker.
During his early years, Louis had very little formal education and was slow to develop. He had a stammer and lived in poverty. After his father was committed to the state mental hospital, he and his family moved to Detroit, Michigan.
By age 15, Louis left school to take odd jobs to help his family. He was eventually employed as an automobile assemblyman. In 1934, he turned professional.
Joe Louis was one of the first Black men to win a world heavyweight title. Louis defended the title for more than a decade. It wasn’t until 1949 that he finally lost it.
When he was younger, Louis was drawn to boxing. After he discovered boxing, his interest in it was so strong that he would carry his gloves in a violin case.
Despite his limited education, Louis developed a powerful physique. Throughout his life, he defended his heavyweight title 25 times.
Before becoming a boxer, he also served in the Army during World War II. His contributions to the war were noted by the Legion of Merit. The citation said that Staff Sergeant Barrow entertained two million soldiers.
Victor Ortiz
Victor Ortiz is a boxer who is well known for his aggressive style and boyish charm. He is a Mexican-American boxer who has had an impressive career as a professional boxer. In addition to his boxing accomplishments, he has also appeared in several films and TV shows.
His professional career began at age 17 when he began training under a trainer named Robert Garcia. After his first professional bout, Ortiz won six of his next nine bouts by knockout or technical knockout.
By 2007, he had won eight bouts by TKO or KO and had an 18-1 record. In 2008, he was named the ESPN boxing prospect of the year.
At age 17, he turned professional and began training under his older sister’s brother. While he was a teenager, he dabbled in drug dealing. But he eventually returned to his family’s boxing gym.
When he was 18, he gained full custody of his younger brother. However, his father left the family. And his mother later abandoned the family.
As a child, Victor Ortiz was bullied by his peers. His older sister became his legal guardian and he began taking boxing lessons. The boxing gym manager saw his potential and decided to mentor him.
At the age of 16, he won the Junior Olympics tournament. When he was seventeen, he moved to California and trained with Roberto Garcia.
Larry Holmes
Larry Holmes is a boxer who dominated the heavyweight game from the late 70s until the early 80s. He is considered one of the best boxers of all time and was a legend in his own right.
After a long stint of amateur boxing, Holmes turned professional at the age of 24. Although his first fight didn’t go well, he went on to make a name for himself in the ring.
During his career, Holmes fought a number of famous names including Mike Weaver, Trevor Berbick, Gerry Cooney, and Leon Spinks. He even sparred Muhammad Ali.
In 1978, Holmes became a professional boxer, and the following year, he became the heavyweight champion of the world. In 1985, he won the IBF title. But in 2002, he retired.
A man who was a master of ring generalship and the smallest of the big three boxing aces, Larry Holmes is a true boxing legend. His success in the ring has inspired several tributes, including a statue sculpted by James “Bonecrusher” Smith, and a Larry Holmes Drive in Easton, Pennsylvania.
While he had an impressive career, his greatest moment was his victory over Muhammad Ali. The two fought in a slugfest. It was a fight which helped shape the era of the heavyweights.
In the wake of Ali’s death, Holmes was cast as the villain in the era of the heavyweights. But he pushed through adversity and showed a compassionate side, as evidenced by the ESPN “30 for 30” documentary on the occasion of his defeat.
