On December 16th, all-time boxing great Terence Crawford announced his retirement from the sport. Crawford retired with a record of 42-0 with 31 knockouts.

Crawford walks away from boxing at the top of the sport with the last memory of him in the ring being a win over the face of the sport, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, to become the undisputed champion at Super Middleweight.

The Omaha, Nebraska native took the fight to the naturally bigger Alvarez and not only outboxed the Mexican legend but also met him in the middle of the ring and went toe to toe with him.

The excellent performance put Crawford squarely in the conversation for the best of this generation and opened up conversations about where he ranks among the best all-time pound for pound.

Boxing has a very long and storied history, which makes it very hard to rank but here are my top ten pound for pound fighters of all-time.

10. Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield is one of the most accomplished boxers in history. As an amateur boxer, he won a silver medal in the world games and a bronze medal in the Olympics.

He started his professional career as a light heavyweight but quickly moved up to cruiserweight and dominated the weight class. In his 15th professional fight, Holyfield defeated Rickey Parkey to become the IBF cruiserweight champion. He would go on to become a unified champion at cruiserweight.

Holyfield then moved up to heavyweight and it only took two years for him to become the unified heavyweight champion of the world after his win over James “Buster” Douglas. Holyfield would go on to prove that he was indeed “The Real Deal” by defeating greats like George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, John Ruiz, and Michael Moorer among others.

Holyfield is arguably the greatest cruiserweight of all-time along with being a four-time heavyweight champion. He kept fighting well passed his prime which led to 10 losses but his prime is one of the greatest of all-time.

9. Manny Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao has a record of 63-8-3 and may be retired but we are not sure. He is the only boxer in history to win belts in eight different weight classes. Pacquiao is one of the most fan friendly fighters of all-time. He always gave the fans their money’s worth, the entertainment factor along with the accumulation of wins led to plenty of big time fights during his career.

Pacquiao defeated greats like Jorge Eliecer Julio, Marco Antonio
Barrera , Juan Manuel Marquez, Erik Morales, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton , Miguel Cotto , Joshua Clottey , Shane Mosley , Timothy Bradley Jr , Adrien Broner , and Keith Thurman, among many other quality boxers.

8. Lennox Lewis

Lennox Lewis has a strong argument to be rated as the greatest heavyweight of all-time. He was the top heavyweight of one of the best eras in heavyweight boxing history. An argument can be made that the era from 1990 through the mid-2000s was the best era in heavyweight boxing history. Some people will say the 1960s and 70s were the best era. Its just based on your perspective.

Lewis has one of the best resumes in boxing history that includes wins over boxers like Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman, David Tua, Shannon Briggs, Andrew Golota, Ray Mercer, Tommy Morrison, Donovan Ruddock, and Vitali Klitschko among others. Lewis ended his career with a record of 41-2-1 with 32 wins by knockout. He also avenged both of his losses via knockout.

7. Carlos Monzon

Carlos Monzon can sometimes be forgotten in history because of the time in which he boxed but that should not be the case. Monzon was one of the most dominate boxers of all-time. He finished his career with a record of 87-3-9 with 59 wins by knockout, avenging the three losses that happened early in his career.

That record included wins over the best middleweights on that era like Bennie Briscoe, Rodrigo Valdez, José Nápoles, Emile Griffith, and Nino Benvenuti. Monzon became the undisputed middleweight champion in 1970 and made 14 title defenses, retiring as the champion in 1977.

6. Terence Crawford

Terence Crawford ended his career with a record of 42-0 with 31 wins by knockout. Crawford is one of the most naturally talented boxers of all-time. He has the ability to fight from both the orthodox and southpaw stance in an effective manner as a boxer and power puncher.

On his way to his 42 wins, he defeated lots of quality boxers including, Ricky Burns, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Ray Beltran, Felix Diaz, Julius Indongo, Jeff Horn, Amir Khan, Egidijus Kavaliauskas (Mean Machine), Kell Brook, Shawn Porter, Errol Spence Jr, Israil Madrimov, and Canelo Alvarez. Crawford is the only male boxer in history to be undisputed in three different weight classes, super lightweight, welterweight, and super middleweight.

5. Sugar Ray Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard is one of the biggest stars in boxing history and lived up to the hype right away. After a stellar amateur career, which included a Golden Gloves championship, Pan American championship and Olympic gold medal.

Leonard hit the ground running as a professional, winning the first 26 fights of his career, becoming a world champion after his win over Wilfred Benitez. After his win over Benitez, Leonard went on to defeat greats like Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler among others.

Leonard ended his career with a record of 36-3-1 with 26 wins by knockout. He won titles in five different weight classes, welterweight, junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight, and light heavyweight.

4. Roy Jones Jr

Roy Jones Jr was the most dominate boxer of the 1990s and early 2000s. He was an amateur star in a similar fashion to Sugar Ray Leonard but instead of getting the gold medal at the Olympics, Jones was robbed in one of the most infamous boxing decisions in history and had to settle for the silver medal. Jones made most of his professional opponents pay for what happened to him in the Olympics.

Jones won 48 of the first 49 bouts of his career. The one loss came via disqualification against Montell Griffin, which Jones avenged in an immediate rematch via a first round knockout. In those first 49 fights, Jones won titles in four weight classes, middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight.

The Pensacola, Florida native used his uncanny combination of speed, power, reflexes and boxing IQ to defeat quality boxers like, Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Vinny Pazienza, Montell Griffin, Virgil Hill, Eric Harding, John Ruiz, and Antonio Tarver, among others.

If Roy Jones Jr, retires after his win over John Ruiz, he would number one on this list but he stayed around way too long and has 10 losses because of it. He isn’t the greatest of all-time but may be the best at his peak in boxing history.

3. Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson finished his career with an absurd record of 174-19-6 with 109 wins by knockout. Robinson was ahead of his time with his combination of power and speed which led to wins over quality opponents like Henry Armstrong, Carmen Basilio, Bobo Olson, Randy Turpin, Kid Gavilan, and Jake LaMotta. Robinson was a six-time world champion during his career.

2. Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali was the most gifted heavyweight of all-time. He truly floated like butterfly and stung like a bee. Ali was able to use his impeccable footwork to dance circles while he tagged his opponents with combinations using his hand speed.

Ali finished his career with a record of 56-5 with 37 knockouts. This included wins over greats like Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, Ernie Terrell, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers and Leon Spinks.

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr

Floyd Mayweather Jr ended his career with a record of 50-0 with 27 knockouts. He is arguably the smartest boxer in history both in and out of the ring. Mayweather was physically gifted with both incredible hand and foot speed but what separated him from other athletic boxers was his mind.

Mayweather’s boxing acumen led him to defeating over 20 world champions and several hall of famers. He won world titles in five different weight classes, super featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight, and junior welterweight.

The best defensive boxer in history defeated the upper echelon in his era that included, Genaro Hernandez, Angel Manfredy, Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Canelo Alvarez, and Manny Pacquiao among others.

Do you agree with my top ten pound for pound boxers of all-time? If not, who do you have on your list?