Boxing Statistics and Facts You May Not Know

It’s no secret that boxing fans love their statistics, we’re all guilty of dropping facts here and there! But what about the stuff we don’t know?

Here’s a list of boxing facts and statistics that you may not have come across before, all in one place!

From the boxer with the most professional fights ever, to the heaviest boxer ever, to the participation rate of boxing in the UK, we cover a load of boxing stats that’ll help answer any boxing quiz question you’re ever asked!

Which boxer has beaten the most opponents in world title fights?
The man with the most professional boxing fights
Longest World title reigns
Tallest boxing World title holder
Highest-grossing boxing matches of all time
The youngest World champion boxer
Longest fight in boxing history
Boxing participation statistics

Which boxer has beaten the most opponents in World title fights?

Ever wondered which boxer beat the most different opponents in World title fights over the course of their career? The answer is the great Julio César Chávez (Snr, of course), followed by Narvaez, Mayweather, Michalczewski and Klitschko.

Here’s a full list!

Name	Opponents beaten in World Title fights	Weights Competed At	Record When Retired
Julio César Chávez	31	Super-featherweight to Welterweight	107-6-2
Omar Narváez	27	Flyweight to Junior-bantamweight	49-3-2
Floyd Mayweather Jnr	24	Super-featherweight to Light-middleweight	50-0-0
Dariusz Michalczewski	23	Light-heavyweight to Cruiserweight	48-2-0
Wladimir Klitschko	23	Heavyweight	64-5-0
Bernard Hopkins	23	Middleweight to Light-heavyweight	55-8-2
Oscar De La Hoya	23	Super-featherweight to Middleweight	39-6-0

This knockout certainly didn’t last long, though! Here’s top-of-the-list Julio César Chávez with a KO over Meldrick Taylor…

Who had the most professional boxing fights ever?

It’s been reported that lightweight boxer Len Wickwar from Leicester, England had the most professional boxing fights ever, with a whopping 470 bouts. Funny, because boxers of today struggle to manage one a year!

Despite having a few years off boxing during World War II, his record was 340-87-42, and he averaged around 40 fights per year during the peak of his career.

Wickwar actually fought three times in one night on February the 8th, 1929, defeating Tommy Cann, Len Swinfield, and Bobby Wood. This is extreme of course, and most boxers end their careers with anywhere between 30 and 50 bouts. However, it is becoming more common for boxers to stay in the amateur ranks for longer, making them older when they turn pro. This means todays boxers generally have less fights – take the mighty Usyk and Lomachenko for example! In just his 19th professional fight, Usyk became the unified Heavyweight world champion after already becoming undisputed at Cruiserweight. A true legend but very few fights to get to the top.

Longest World title reigns in professional boxing

So, who held their World titles for the longest amount of time?

At the top spot is Joe Louis, who held his heavyweight NBA and NYSAC (old organisations but World titles nonetheless) for 11 years, 8 months and 8 days.

That’s over 4,000 days!

Here’s a full list of the longest ever World title reigns in boxing:

Joe Louis – Heavyweight – 11 years, 8 months, 8 days – NBA, NYSAC
Johnny Kilbane – Featherweight – 11 years, 3 months, 24 days – Lineal-to-NBA, NYSAC
Joe Calzaghe – Super Middleweight – 10 years, 11 months, 22 days – WBO
Bernard Hopkins – Middleweight – 10 years, 2 months, 18 days – IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO
Chris John – Featherweight – 10 years, 1 month, 5 days – WBA

Who is the tallest boxing World title holder of all time?

A heavyweight, that’s for sure!

Jess Willard (6ft6.5), the “Pottawatomie Giant”, held the title as the tallest fighter to win a World title from 1915 until the beast that was Vitali Klitschko (6ft7) won his first World title over 80 years later. It’s crazy to think that Willard, once the tallest man ever to grace a boxing ring, would now be regarded as a relatively small heavyweight in comparison to the likes of Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury and the Klitschko Brothers.

After Vitali, came the Beast from the East, Nikolai Valuev. Valuev is known to be the tallest World champion boxer to this day, standing at over 7ft (7ft2 according to some measurements).

Valuev is also the heaviest World champion boxer in history, weighing 328lbs against Monte Barrett – who, unfortunately for him, weighed just 223lbs. You need your hands wrapped when punching him, that’s for sure!

Tyson Fury is reportedly 6ft 9, but he still doesn’t match the size of Valuev.

Who is the heaviest boxer ever?

The famous ‘Butterbean’ Eric Esch is the heaviest boxer ever. Despite not being a World title holder or challenger, he weighed in at a peak 425lbs, that’s almost 200kg! The man had a mean right hand on him as well.

Highest-grossing boxing matches of all time

Graph of the highest-grossing boxing matches ever

Correct at the time of writing, this will likely change as boxing becomes more and more popular with Saudi.

Ironically, the highest-grossing boxing match of all time included an MMA fighter, Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor back in August 2017. It was more of a WWE event than a true boxing match, but it generated revenue like no other fight in history could.

May-Mac’s total revenue topped $500million, something that had never been done before.

All four of the most expensive boxing matches ever included Floyd Mayweather, who has gone down in history as one of the richest sportsmen of all time.

Two of the top six highest-grossing fights included ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, the baddest man on the planet, who subsequently lost a lot of his cash thanks to Don King, according to reports.

Who has the best boxing record ever?

The best undefeated boxing records in the history of the sport include:

Floyd Mayweather (50-0-0)
Rocky Marciano (49-0-0)
Joe Calzaghe (46-0-0)

But you could also argue that the best boxing records aren’t necessarily the undefeated ones; what about the people who fought the best, took a few losses but avenged those defeats?

The likes of Lennox Lewis (41-2-1), for example.

Who is the youngest World champion boxer ever?

Wilfred Benitez is the youngest boxer ever to win a World title, and has been since way back in 1976.

He defeated Antonio Cervantes by split decision for the WBA Super-Lightweight (Light-Welterweight) title in March of 1976 in San Juan, at just 17-years-old.

He defended the title three times and then moved up in weight, eventually fighting the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, and even beat the great Roberto Durán.

His career spiralled downwards after much controversy, ending with a record of 53-8-1, but we can’t see this record being beaten any time soon – if ever!

Youngest World heavyweight champion ever

‘Iron’ Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight World champion in the history of boxing when he defeated Trevor Berbick for the World Boxing Council (WBC) Heavyweight Title on November 22nd, 1986.

Tyson, or Kid Dynamite as he was known in his younger days, won the title via second-round stoppage at the age of 20 years (and four months).

He went on to blitz opponents for years and became one of the best heavyweights of all time.

What was the longest boxing match ever?

In April, 1893, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke fought in the longest gloved boxing match in history. It took place in New Orleans and lasted a crazy 110 rounds – taking over seven hours to come to a halt.

They were probably wearing tiny boxing gloves and no – not much padding to protect their hands and faces from 110 rounds of punches…

The prize? Apart from a place in boxing history, not much!

The ‘Lightweight Championship of the South’ and a $2,500 purse would’ve gone to the winner – but as they fought to a draw, they split the prize.

Boxing participation in the UK statistics

Looking for some positive boxing statistics? Well, local gyms around the world have saved millions of lives with their discipline and life lessons, and thousands of people are kept off the streets in the UK each year. But how many people are actually participating in boxing?

It has been reported that the number of people participating in boxing in England alone rose to 771,600 in 2018, from 672,100 in 2016, according to Statista.