Who is the Greatest Heavy Weight Boxer of all time?

Introduction

It's been a subject of debate for many years, who is the greatest heavy weight boxer of all time.

I have set out to try and come up with a list of the top fifty champions since records began, we have 84 different champions since the World Champion of Heavy Weight boxers started.

By looking at the career stats of them all, taking into account win's, KO's, Draws, Defeats, how long they reigned, how many times they regained the title, who was undisputed and of course taking into the mix those who carried on and tarnished their records by losing too much at the end of the career.

There are some surprises based on the formula I have used, and not every one will agree with the top 50 list I have compiled using this data, but I believe I have taken into consideration all the facts possible to come up with this list.

It is true that I cant deny the boxer at number one, but it's not who I would of said before I started this process.

Before I start the countdown from 50 to 1 in the next chapters, I want to share some stat's that have come out of my research and formula. Bear in mind that this is based all the boxers that have won a Heavy Weight World Title.

Lets start with the boxer that ended up on the bottom of list:

Leon Spinks won the title from Muhammad Ali by split decision in February 1978, at the time only in his 8th fight to become undisputed champion, but in a rematch against Ali in September 1978 he lost the title by unanimous decision.

He reigned for only 212 days, on top of this his career stats were ruined by continuing to fight but never really reaching the great heights of champion ever again, only 26 wins in a 46 fight career giving him the worse career win percentage of all the champions of 56.5%

One of Spink's issues was not having real KO power, only 30.4% of his wins came from knockout's, and this pattern continues with the 34 fighters at the bottom of the list, with none of them have a KO% of over 80%

The Worse Champion for KO% ?

Jack Sharkey owns this stat with only a 23.6% KO rate, another undisputed champion winning his title in 1932 and defending it three times.

Top Ten Champions for KO% - (Top wont be a suprise to most people)

1. Deontay Wilder - 89.36%

2. Rocky Marciano - 87.76%

3. Vitali Klitchoko - 87.23%

4. Frank Bruno - 84.44%

5. George Foreman - 83.95%

6. David Haye - 81.25%

7. Herbie Hide - 81.13%

8. Tommy Morrison - 80.77%

9. Anthony Joshua - 80.65%

10. Shannon Biggs - 77.94%

Primo Carnera had the most knockouts in his career with 72 from 103 fights, giving a KO% of 69.9%

Tony Tucker had the shortest reign of any of 84 fighters, he only held the title for 64 days after beating Buster Douglas on May 30th 1987 he went straight into a fight with Mike Tyson on August 1st 1987 and lost by unanimous decision.

Ezzard Charles had the most fights of the all champions, with 121. Ezzard also had the most wins by decision with 43.

Michael Bentt the least with 13. Sadly his career was cut very short after a brain injury after a defeat to Herbie Hide in 1994.

Evander Holyfield regained a Heavy Weight title the most times with 4.

At this time only one Champion has finished their career undefeated - Rocky Marciano.

Although Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are still both currently undefeated and are due to fight each other later in year.

Joe Louis has the record for most defences of his titles.