40 Stunning Boxing Trivia about Heavyweight Champions

1. Vitali Klitschko is the first professional boxing world champion to hold a doctoral degree (Ph. D in sports science). He graduated at Kiev University in 2000.

2. James “Bonecrusher” Smith, a WBA heavyweight champion in 1980s, is the first heavyweight champion with a college degree – Business Administration from Shaw University in North Carolina, USA.

3. Vitali Klitschko, a Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and the current WBC world heavyweight champion, has the highest knockout percentage (92.5%) of any heavyweight boxing champion in overall fights.

4. Muhammad Ali suffered from hernia and was hospitalized in 1965, a week before his fight with Sonny Liston. The scheduled fight was postponed.

5. Gerhardus Christian Coetzee better known as Gerrie Coetzee was the first boxer from African continent ever to fight for the world Heavyweight title, and the first to win the world Heavyweight title.

6. Joe Louis’s championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months engaging in 27 championship fights and successfully defended his title 25 times.

7. Joe Louis was named the greatest heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization in 2005 and was ranked number one on Ring Magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Punchers of All Time.

8. Max Schmeling, at age 99, is the longest-lived world heavyweight boxing champion. He died in 2004.

9. In 29 months, from January 1939 through May 1941, Joe Louis defended his title thirteen times, a frequency unmatched by any heavyweight champion and was a world champion for 11 years and 10 months –still a record in the heavyweight division.

10. Joe Louis most remarkable record is that he knocked out 23 opponents in 27 title fights, including 5 world champions.

11.Joe Louis uttered two of boxing’s most famous observations: “He can run, but he can’t hide” and “Everyone has a plan until they’ve been hit”.

12. Ring magazine has rated Ezzard Mark, an African-American heavyweight champion, as the greatest light heavyweight of all time although he never won the championship at that weight.

13. Rocky Marciano, heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1956, is the only heavyweight champion in boxing history to retire having won every fight in his professional career.

14. Nikolai Sergeyevich Valuev, the reigning two-time WBA heavyweight champion, stands 7 feet tall making him the tallest and heaviest boxing world champion of all time.

15. Valuev also had the largest fists in heavyweight history.

16. The Canadian boxer George Louis Chuvalo was never knocked down in ninety-three professional fights between 1956 and 1979. He is considered by many to have had the greatest chin in the history of boxing.

17. Muhammad Ali was crowned “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated and “Sports Personality of the Century” by the BBC in 1999.

18. George Foreman and Muhammad Ali became best friends.

19. Chuck Wepner, an obscure boxer, who lost to Ali in a 1975 fight, has often been credited as the inspiration for Rocky Balboa.

20. Muhammad Ali was named “Fighter of the Year” by Ring Magazine more times than any other fighter, and was involved in more Ring Magazine “Fight of the Year” bouts than any other fighter

21. In 1993, Muhammad Ali tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athletes, out of over 800 dead or alive athletes, in America. According to Associated Press, over 97% of Americans, over 12-years of age, identified both Ali and Ruth.

22. Ali is generally considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time by boxing commentators and historians.

23. Ring Magazine named Muhammad Ali # 1 in a 1998 ranking of greatest heavyweights from all eras. ESPN.com named Muhammad Ali the second greatest fighter in boxing history behind only welterweight and middleweight great Sugar Ray Robinson.

24. In 2007, ESPN.com listed Muhammad Ali the second greatest heavyweights of all times behind Joe Louis.

25. George Edward Foreman is the oldest man ever to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world at age 45 reclaiming the title he held 20 years earlier.

26. George Foreman also broke the record for the fighter with the longest interval between one world championship and the next.

27. Michael Spinks is the first reigning light-heavyweight champion to win the heavyweight title when he beat Larry Holmes.

28. Michael Gerard “Mike” Tyson is the youngest man ever to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles at just 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old.

29. Trevor Berbick, who was murdered in his native Jamaica, was the last man to fight Muhammad Ali winning a 10 round decision in 1981.

30. James “Buster” Douglas caused one of the most shocking upsets in sports history when he knocked out undefeated champion Mike Tyson in 1990. Douglas is a 42 to 1 underdog for the fight.

31. Evander Holyfield, Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko are the only four men ever to become world heavyweight champions three times.

32. Evander Holyfield of USA is the only boxer to win the heavyweight title four times.

33. John Ruiz, who knocked out Holyfield in 2001, is the first Hispanic ever to win the world’s heavyweight title.

34. Boxers who have won at least 20 fights in a row by knockout include Michael Moorer, George Foreman, Wilfredo Gomez, Carlos Zarate, John Mugabi and Aaron Pryor.

35. John Lawrence Sullivan, also known as the Boston Strong Boy, was recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing from February 7, 1881 to 1892, and is generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring rules.

36. John Lawrence Sullivan was the first American sports hero to become a national celebrity and the first American athlete to earn over 1 million dollars.

37. Roy Jones, Jr., named “Fighter of the Decade” for the 1990s, became the first former middleweight title holder to win a heavyweight title in 106 years and also the second man in History to advance from the Middleweight to the Heavyweight Championship in 203.

38. Roy Jones Jr. also became the first fighter to start his career as a junior middleweight and win a heavyweight title.

39. In 1978, when Leon Spinks refused to defend his title against its #1 contender Ken Norton, he was stripped of his world title. Ken Norton was named WBC world champion, marking the first time a boxer had been awarded the heavyweight title without winning it in the ring.

40. Leon Spinks is the only man ever to take an actual title belt away from Muhammad Ali in the ring, since Ali’s other losses were contests where no official world title belt was on the line at the time.

See also

Amazing People and Amazing Facts about Humans