By Dan Morley
BOXING is a sport rich in history and titles that has fascinated audiences for over a century. Each era has produced greats who have pushed boundaries and achieved what many thought was impossible. In recent years, fighters such as Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk have embarked on historic conquests across multiple weight divisions, obliterating multiple weight classes to become undisputed champions in two weight classes.
However, as incredible as they may be, history has produced some incredible feats in the world of boxing that will surely never be broken. After extensive research, here are some of the most incredible achievements in boxing.
Wilfred Benitez – World Champion at 17
Defensive master Wilfred Benitez had one of the greatest careers of all time before he turned 20. Recognised as the unofficial ‘Fifth King’, with a win over Roberto Duran and fights against Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, Benitez was a seasoned three-division world champion by the age of 22.
However, it was his maiden title win over legendary champion Antonio Cervantes that stood out. By dethroning Cervantes, Benitez established himself as the youngest World Champion in boxing history at the age of 17.
Wilfred Benitez
It wasn’t just a quick knockout, it was a masterclass over 15 rounds against a champion with 60 professional fights and 10 successful title defenses. Cervantes had defeated greats like Esteban De Jesus, Nicolino Locche and Alfonso Frazer – and won many more titles along the way.
Manny Pacquiao – Eight-Division World Champion
In his legendary run through the weight classes, Pacquiao has dominated from flyweight to super welterweight—an unimaginable 10 weight classes. Skipping two title-level weight classes, Manny has won championships in eight different weight classes.
Amazingly, while defeating many of the great fighters of that era, his barrage of strikes still maintained its knockout effectiveness and devastating damage throughout the weight jumps.
Whether it was the fights with Morales, Barrera and Marquez at featherweight/super featherweight, the up-and-downs from Hatton, Cotto, Diaz and De La Hoya to welterweight, or the facial reconstruction surgery on Antonio Margarito at super welterweight, Pacquiao’s prime years were both terrifying and unbelievable.
Sam Langford’s resume from lightweight to heavyweight
While Pacquiao holds the most weight-division titles in history, the great Sam Langford has never even been a world champion. Yet Langford has fought 50 more Hall of Famers than Pacquiao and has defeated many of the greatest boxers in history from lightweight to heavyweight.
At 17, Langford defeated one of the greatest lightweights in history, Joe Gans, in 15 rounds, without winning a title. At 18, he convincingly defeated the greatest boxer of all time, Barbados welterweight champion Joe Walcott, but the title fight was controversial as the result was a draw.
Sam Langford (left)
Sam also defeated future Walcott winner Young Peter Jackson the following year. The following year he jumped from welterweight to heavyweight, losing an exciting 15-round decision to future champion Jack Johnson, who refused to grant Sam a rematch.
During the rest of his career, Langford defeated Hall of Famers in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, defeating Stanley Ketchel, Tiger Flowers and Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, the latter two being knocked out. His most impressive feat was a 40+ fight streak against Hall of Fame heavyweights Harry Wills, Joe Jeannette, Sam McVey and Battling Jim Johnson – all of which added to Langford’s tally of victories and 126 career knockouts!
Len Wickwar – The man with the most matches and wins in history
Leicester’s Len Wickwar was a believer in keeping busy, taking part in an incredible 473 professional fights, mostly in the 1930s. He won 340, lost 87 and drew 42, scoring 91 knockouts.
This gruesome activity was scheduled throughout a 19-year career, but six of those years were inactive due to World War II, meaning that over the course of 13 years, Wickwar fought 469 times. If the war had not slowed his work rate, and if he had been able to maintain the pace, Wickwar would have had 700-800 professional fights.
Wickwar Len
Many of his fights were 10-round bouts, totaling over 4,000 rounds. Wickwar fought over 50 times a year three times and over 40 times a year five times. He fought 12 rounds against Billy Bird, the man with the most KOs in boxing history (138), and Hall of Famers Jack Kid Berg and Freddie Miller.
Harry Greb – 45-0 in one year
Harry Greb is considered the greatest boxer in the history of boxing, having defeated more Hall of Famers than anyone else from welterweight to heavyweight. However, while this feat deserves mention on this list, it is not even the highlight of his unparalleled career.
For me, his peak was a remarkable display of dominance, fearlessness, and relentlessness. In 1919, Harry Greb went 45-0, a streak that stretched to 52-0. During those 45 fights, 12 months, Greb scored victories over Hall of Famers including: Battling Levinsky 4 times, Leo Hauck 3 times, Billy Miske, HOF heavyweights Mike Gibbons and Mike McTigue, while also defeating heavyweight contenders Bill Brennan 4 times and George KO Brown and eventual Middleweight Champion Jeff Smith.
Harry Greb
Greb himself rarely weighed much above the middleweight limit, being forced to sit out for two months of the year due to influenza and a broken hand. After finally losing to Tommy Gibbons in May 1920 to end his 50-fight winning streak, the ‘Pittsburgh Windmill’ immediately embarked on another 56-fight unbeaten streak, where he would defeat Hall of Famers Tommy Loughran 4x, Tommy Gibbons, Kid Norfolk, Jeff Smith Twice and most famously Gene Tunney, the only man ever to do so.
Archie Moore, George Foreman and Bernard Hopkins – Strange Longevity
While each man began his own legendary career, I couldn’t decide who best exemplified the rare art of longevity, so I decided to combine all three together. The one thing each man had in common was a great, all-time career at a young age.
Archie Moore, who fought in the Mafia era, refused to play football and waited until he was 39 to get his chance at the title. By then, he had boxed against Hall of Famers more than 20 times.
Hopkins possessed the guile and finesse that Moore became famous for, himself holding the middleweight championship for a decade until the age of 40. Foreman was rougher than the others but possessed tremendous power and overwhelming strength as a young man, brutally massacring Joe Frazier twice, Ken Norton and beating Ron Lyle.
George Foreman
However, ‘Big George’, like ‘Alien’ and ‘Old Mongoose’, returned in his 40s with a re-invented style, thanks to the old master himself, Archie Moore, who worked with an older Foreman. All three men used the tactics, tricks and discipline they had acquired in their prime to continually defy the inevitability of Father Time and defeat champions much younger than themselves, creating the greatest careers ever seen by a boxer over the age of 40.
Moore won the light heavyweight title at the age of 39 and reigned for 10 years, defeating greats such as Joey Maxim three times, Nino Valdes twice, Harold Johnson and, more incredibly, at the age of 44, jumped out of the ring four times to knock out Yvon Durelle in the 1950s.
His unsuccessful challenges to heavyweight greats Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali all took place during these years.
Bernard Hopkins won four different world titles in his 40s, defeating champions Kelly Pavlik, Tavoris Cloud, Jean Pascal, Winky Wright, Antonio Tarver and Roy Jones Jr. After defeating Beibut Shumenov, Hopkins became the oldest boxer to win a world title at the age of 46.
Archie’s cross-guard defense (along with other tricks) was also instrumental in Foreman’s resurgence. From the ages of 42 to 45, George wrestled the new era of heavyweight legends Evander Holyfield and Tommy Morrison, then defeated Michael Moorer to become the oldest heavyweight champion ever at 45.
