The 10 Most Important Heavyweight Title Fights in Boxing History

For most of the past 150 years, the Heavyweight Boxing Championship was the biggest title in all of sports. The man who wore the belt was usually regarded as a larger-than-life figure, more folk hero than mortal man.

No other sport can approach the high drama of a classic heavyweight prizefight—when two heroes put themselves on the line round after round to establish which man can lay claim to the title of toughest man on the planet.

Alas, it’s been almost a lifetime since we’ve seen a fight like that.

By temperament, I am not given to nostalgia. I’d rather celebrate what is right in front of me than pine for the past.

There’s still plenty to celebrate about boxing in the here and now. But it’s impossible to ignore that the generally lower status the sport is accorded in today’s media world is directly linked to the decline of the heavyweight division.

Not a single fight on this list occurred within the past 25 years.

July 8, 1889: John L. Sullivan Beats Jake Kilrain in the Last Bare-Knuckle Fight

John L. Sullivan was America’s first great sports hero and the first heavyweight champion of the gloved era. But before he could establish himself as the absolute king of the prize ring, he had to fight one last bare-knuckle fight against another would-be claimant to the crown, Jake Kilrain.

By 1889, Sullivan had been recognized as the world champion for seven years. He had traveled the world and graced the stage. He had rubbed shoulders with tycoons and British royalty and nearly drunk himself into a state of physical collapse.

Meanwhile, Kilrain had built his own case for prizefighting dominance, fighting under the older London Prize Ring Rules. National Police Gazette publisher Richard Fox awarded him an allegedly jewel-encrusted Police Gazette championship belt and promoted him as the American Champion.

At the start of 1889, Sullivan recommitted himself to getting back into fighting shape. The fight was set for an undisclosed location in the Mississippi countryside and kept secret because prizefighting was still illegal. The governor of Mississippi had threatened to call out the militia to stop the event.

On the morning of the bout, sporting gents crammed like livestock onto specially chartered trains to reach the fight location. Among the luminaries was legendary Wild West lawman Bat Masterson, who was also among the first boxing writers.

The fight went 75 rounds, though under the London rules a knockdown ended a round and throws and trips were permitted. By the latter half of the fight, Sullivan was firmly in control.

The National Police Gazette referred to the event as “the greatest event ever experienced in the sporting world” that “leaked over into every facet of social existence, with bankers, brokers, lawyers and even ministers of the gospel asking their neighbors what they thought of the terrible battle.”  

July 4, 1910: Jack Johnson Knocks out James Jeffries

Jack Johnson emerged during America’s ragtime era. He was the first black man to hold the championship crown.

While there had been other terrific black prizefighters before, going all the way back to Bill Richmond in the 1760s, none had ever been given the opportunity to challenge for the world championship. And when Johnson finally managed to knock out Tommy Burns for the crown in 1908, taunting and humiliating him the entire way, it came as a shock to the racist public of the day.

A cry went up for a fit white challenger to upend Johnson. Among the most depressing writings of the time came from none other than the novelist Jack London, who editorialized for a “great white hope.”

Eventually the situation got so desperate that Jim Jeffries was dragged out of retirement. He had been a formidable champion in his day, but by 1910 he had been retired for more than half a decade, growing fat on his farm.

Trainloads of spectators poured into Reno, Nevada, for days before the July 4 showdown. It was the most hotly anticipated fight since the era of Sullivan and had social significance never before seen.

After so many years of inactivity, Jeffries was in no condition to stand up to Johnson. He absorbed a brutal beating before getting knocked out in 15.

September 14, 1923: Jack Dempsey Knocks out Luis Firpo

The 1920s have often been referred to as “the golden age of sports.” Technological advances like the radio coupled with post-war prosperity to create huge new audiences for diversions like professional sports.

Save Babe Ruth, no sports star of the era was bigger than "The Manassa Mauler," Jack Dempsey. His 1923 tilt with the "Wild Bull of the Pampas," Luis Firpo, should probably be regarded as the first major modern heavyweight clash.

The fight was held in the Polo Grounds, the home stadium for the baseball Giants and one of the leading sporting venues of the day. Approximately 80,000 fans paid to watch it, with 40,000 more turned away. It was boxing’s first million dollar fight.

The fight was brutal and short. Firpo dropped Dempsey to his knee in the opening seconds of the fight. Dempsey recovered to knock Firpo down seven times in the first round, but Firpo managed to knock Dempsey clean out of the ring as the round was coming to a close.

Dempsey knocked Firpo down twice more and won the fight 57 seconds into Round 2.

June 13, 1935: Cinderella Man Jim Braddock Beats Max Baer

Sports can be both a diversion and an inspiration. Americans at the depth of the Great Depression were desperately in need of both.

Nobody filled that role better than James J. Braddock, the Cinderella Man. A former light heavyweight contender, by the mid-1930s he was all but retired and attempting to eke out a meager living to feed his family as a day laborer on the loading docks.

An improbable comeback put him in line for a shot at heavyweight champion Max Baer in 1935. Baer had killed one man in the ring and was probably responsible for the injuries that led another opponent to die in a later fight.

He was a charismatic, even humorous, personality. But as a prizefighter, he was deadly.

But a shot at the heavyweight championship was nothing Braddock could afford to pass up. Improbably, he boxed the fight of his life and captured the crown.

He might be the worst heavyweight champion of the pre-alphabet soup era. But his story is one of the best, and there can be little doubt that it inspired millions of Americans when they needed it desperately.

Over 70 years later, it provided the inspiration for one of the best boxing movies to come out of Hollywood, Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe.  

June 22, 1938: Joe Louis Knocks out Max Schmeling in Round 1

This fight is possibly the most important sporting event of any kind in the history of 20th century America. It warranted its own section in my eighth-grade history book.

By 1938 Joe Louis had been the heavyweight champion for a year and was the first black man to hold the belt since Jack Johnson. Among the African-American community, he was a wildly popular hero but was still treated as an outsider by mainstream sports writers.

Louis had lost a single fight in his pre-championship career, getting knocked out by former champion Max Schmeling of Germany. The win had made Schmeling a hero to Nazi Germany and a special favorite of Hitler.

With Nazi aggression on the rise and World War II quickly approaching, a rematch was set for Louis and Schmeling in 1938.

Suddenly, for the first time in American history, the country was rallying behind a black hero. President Roosevelt invited Louis to the White House and told him, “We’ll need muscles like yours, Joe, to beat the Nazis.”

The loss to Schmeling had irked Louis. He would say later that he had never felt like the champion until he got revenge against Louis.

And get revenge he did. In the first fight, Schmeling had exploited Louis’ tendency to drop his hand when returning his jab. Louis had patched up the hole by the second meeting.

This time, Schmeling never had a prayer. Louis blitzed him, and the fight never made it out of the first round.  

September 23, 1952: Rocky Marciano Knocks out Joe Walcott in Round 13

As the only heavyweight champion to ever retire undefeated, Rocky Marciano holds a special place in boxing lore. But his remarkable run almost never happened.

When Marciano met Joe Walcott to challenge for the world title in September 1952, the champion handed him a boxing lesson for the first 12 rounds. Indeed, under current boxing rules, Walcott would have won a unanimous decision by wide margins, and Marciano might have disappeared into history.

Instead, Marciano had his greatest comeback in a career filled with amazing comebacks. In Round 13, he continued to stalk Walcott and caught him with a beautiful right hand only a split second before Walcott was about to pull the trigger on his own overhand right.

It was the type of come-from-behind victory that makes boxing such a thrilling sport and one of the most legendary moments in one of boxing’s most legendary careers.

October 30, 1974: Muhammad Ali Knocks out George Foreman in Zaire

This fight established Muhammad Ali as “The Greatest.”

Without this fight, he’d still be rated as among the best heavyweight champions of all time and still be regarded as one of the most important 20th century figures from sports and culture.

But the mental toughness and ability to adapt that he displayed against a younger, more powerful champion in the stifling heat of Zaire in October 1974 makes his case as the best big man of all time undeniable.

Ali had slayed unstoppable monsters before Foreman. But against Foreman, he no longer had the legs to dance as he had against Sonny Liston a decade earlier.

Instead Ali unveiled his rope-a-dope strategy, a dazzling combination of guts and guile that would have been impossible for any other man.

For better or worse, this event also launched Don King to the forefront of boxing promotion. In order to cover the unprecedented purse bid he had made, he went into business with African dictator Mobutu Seku.

The result was a major international event, a boxing match surrounded by a music festival featuring such American superstars as James Brown and B.B. King.

In all, the event so remarkable that it inspired the award-winning documentary When We Were Kings more than 20 years later.

October 1, 1975: The Thrilla in Manila

By the time I was a sports-crazed kid in grade school in the late 1970s, this fight had already taken on the mythic dimensions of the Trojan War. And Frazier and Ali entered their third meeting in the Philippines as living legends, the boxing equivalents of Hector and Achilles.

This was the greatest fight in heavyweight championship history. Both men displayed as much physical courage as any athletes in the history of sports.

Ali won the first few rounds, but when he attempted to rest his legs by rope-a-doping in the middle rounds, he provided Frazier with the opening he needed to go to town on Ali’s body. Throughout the middle rounds, the two exchanged brutal flurries, and the fight ended up setting the record for punches thrown in a heavyweight bout.

With his eyes swelling shut, Frazier went for broke in the 13th round and scored heavily on Ali. But in Round 14, he was nearly fighting blind and sustained tremendous punishment from Ali.

Frazier’s trainer, Eddie Futch, had seen enough. Unwilling to let his fighter sustain any more brutality when he was unable to defend himself, he threw in the towel.

Ali famously said that the fight was the closest he ever felt to death.

June 9, 1978: Larry Holmes and Ken Norton Gut It out to the End

In my mind, this was the last epic heavyweight clash. There have been great heavyweight fights in the years since, to be sure. But nothing has approached the mythic overtones of Norton vs. Holmes.

This fight was for the WBC championship, and beyond that, to establish who would step in to fill Ali’s shoes.

In storyline, it was like a medieval saga, with the great king now gone and two worthy generals rising up to battle for the kingdom left behind.

As a fight, it not only lived up to its expectations, it surpassed them. Aside from the drama and significance, it was one of the best pure fights in the history of the division.

This was a contest between two smart, savvy boxers with warrior hearts. In 15 rounds, neither man conceded an inch.

Round 15 is one of the greatest rounds in heavyweight history. With the fight on the line, both men pushed through their fatigue to fight it out to the bell.

Each man landed multiple shots in Round 15 that would have dropped a lesser opponent. In the end, Holmes came out on top with a split-decision win.

June 27, 1988: Mike Tyson Crushes Michael Spinks in 91 Seconds

As a prizefight, this one amounted to nothing but disappointment. In a mere half round it was over, with Michael Spinks overwhelmed by the apocalyptic fury of the young Iron Mike Tyson.

I regard Tyson as the last of the old-school heavyweight champions. Other great fighters have worn the crown, and some arguably deserve a higher ranking on the all-time list.

But he was the last heavyweight king to be held by the public with the awe and esteem that was once customary for the champion. There may have been better champions than Tyson in the past 20 years, but none have been a bigger deal.

And on no night of his career was Tyson a bigger deal than when he dispatched Spinks in a mere 91 seconds.

By this point he had already collected the IBF, WBA and WBC belts. But Spinks still stood on the horizon as a claimant to the throne. He had beaten Larry Holmes, and regardless of belts, he was the lineal champ.

When Tyson left the ring after finishing off Spinks, he was the first undisputed champion since Ali.