Ranking the Most Dominant Stretches in a Single Weight Class in Boxing History

From 1937 to 1949, Joe Louis sat at the top of the heavyweight division like a bright star on a dark night. Marvelous Marvin Hagler appeared completely untouchable when he ruled the middleweight division in the 1980s. 

Note, however, that this is definitely not intended to be a pound-for-pound ranking. By focusing on specific weight classes, certain all-time greats were excluded from inclusion here, due to the way they climbed weight classes and collected titles. 

Others had their dominance challenged by other rivals of equal or near greatness. 

Still, the fighters on this list are all among the best ever. To forge a dominant reign in the sport, they had to be. 

10. Larry Holmes

If you were growing up as a boxing fan in the early 1980s, it felt like Larry Holmes had been the heavyweight champion forever.

After capturing the title by split decision over Ken Norton in one of the great heavyweight title fights of all time in 1978, Holmes would successfully defend the belt 20 times and run his record to 48-0 before finally losing to Michael Spinks in 1985. I think he got robbed in that fight and robbed worse in the 1986 rematch. 

The Easton Assassin would never again hold the title, but in the 1990s he did have one of the best runs of any fighter over 40 years old in history. 

9. Ricardo Lopez

One of the great things about boxing is that it is a weight-class sport. Athletes of all sizes are able to compete on even terms.

But fighters at the very smallest weights still struggle to gain widespread recognition. Still, fighters like Ricardo Lopez manage to stand out, no matter what. The accomplishments of Finito demand respect.

One of the few champions of all time to retire undefeated, Lopez compiled a career record of 51-0-1 with 38 KOs. Lopez was a nearly perfect technical fighter, defensively solid and with finishing power.

Lopez successfully defended the strawweight title 21 times before moving up and capturing the light flyweight belt.

8. Julio Cesar Chavez

Widely considered the greatest Mexican fighter of all time, Julio Cesar Chavez ruled the junior welterweight division for most of the 1990s. Between 1989 and 1996, he held various alphabet soup versions of the title and was continuously rated near the top of the division. 

Chavez dropped the belt briefly in 1994, when he received the first loss of his career via split decision to Frankie Randall. He won the belt back in an immediate rematch. 

Chavez benefited from one of the worst decisions ever when he was handed a draw against Pernell Whitaker in 1993, but that was in a challenge for Whitaker's welterweight title. Chavez also won by controversial last-second stoppage in a fight he was losing against Meldrick Taylor in 1990.

Richard Steele has been criticized heavily for that stoppage over the years, but it's undeniable that Chavez had inflicted tremendous damage on Taylor throughout the fight. Although Taylor made it back to his feet before the count, he was still leaning all his weight on the ropes and looked completely out of it when Steele waved off the bout. 

In no way was he responding like a fighter who was ready to continue trading punches. 

7. Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko

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I've made the Klitschko brothers a co-entry here, because for all purposes they have reigned as co-champions for most of this century, with each brother holding a share of the heavyweight title. 

Some might argue that they deserve a higher ranking. And it's true that their dominance has been close to total. They've scarcely lost rounds. 

But when evaluating the absolutely most dominant champions, some consideration must be paid to quality of opposition. And the heavyweight division in the 21st century has been historically weak. 

6. Bernard Hopkins

At the remarkable age of 49, Bernard Hopkins is the reigning IBF and WBA light heavyweight champion. In November he will face the dangerous WBO champion Sergey Kovalev in a unification bout. Hopkins' accomplishments at his age are more amazing than any by another professional athlete, in any other sport. 

But Hopkins had established himself as a Hall of Famer more than a decade ago on the strength of his dominant run through the middleweight division. 

In 1995, Hopkins captured the vacant IBF title. It was the start of a decade-long reign. In 2001, he beat Puerto Rican legend Felix Trinidad by TKO to add the WBC and WBA belts to his collection. 

In 2004 he knocked out Oscar De La Hoya to win the WBO belt, which made him the first undisputed middleweight champion since Marvin Hagler. 

5. Wilfredo Gomez

With all due respect to Miguel Cotto, Wilfredo Benitez and Felix Trinidad, in my estimation, the greatest Puerto Rican boxing champion of all time is Wilfredo Gomez. Bazooka is also unquestionably the greatest super bantamweight champion ever and one of the sport's all-time most destructive pound-for-pound punchers. 

Gomez captured the 122-pound title in 1977 and held it until he vacated it in 1983. He defended the title 17 times, winning each time by knockout. 

During that stretch, his only loss came when he moved up to featherweight to challenge the great Salvador Sanchez. In one of the classic Puerto Rico vs. Mexico ring battles of all time, Sanchez turned back Gomez. 

Nevertheless, Gomez would go on to win titles at both featherweight and super featherweight later in his career to become a three-division champ. But he would never come close to duplicating his phenomenal record at 122 pounds. 

4. Roberto Duran

Before he participated in some of the biggest fights of the 1980s at welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight, Roberto Duran had already punched his ticket to the Hall of Fame during the 1970s, when he dominated the lightweight division and established himself as arguably the greatest 135-pound fighter to ever live.

Duran lost just once during the decade, when he came in poorly trained to face Esteban De Jesus. It was a loss he avenged twice by stoppage.

Duran captured the WBA belt from Ken Buchanan in 1972 and held it until vacating it in 1979 in order to pursue his epic showdown with Sugar Ray Leonard. In his last fight prior to vacating the WBA belt, he unified it with the WBC strap when he stopped De Jesus.

A biopic of Duran's life is due for release in 2015, starring Robert De Niro as Duran's trainer, Ray Arcel. Boxing fans, rejoice.

3. Benny Leonard

Although a half century separated Roberto Duran and Benny Leonard, they shared a trainer in Ray Arcel. They also share the distinction of being the only two serious candidates for the greatest lightweight of all time.

I'm placing Leonard slightly ahead of Duran on this list because he fought at a time when there was only one world champion. While nobody seriously doubted that Duran was the dominant lightweight in the world during the 1970s, other fighters staked a claim to the title of world champion. 

Born on New York's lower East Side at the turn of the 20th century, Leonard was nicknamed "The Ghetto Wizard" for his unmatched technical skill in the ring. He captured the world title in 1917, at age 21, and held the belt until his retirement seven years later.

During this stretch, he lost just once, by disqualification, to welterweight champion Jack Britton, for hitting Britton after he had knocked him down. Like so many Americans, Leonard's financial security was badly damaged by the stock market crash of 1929, and he came out of retirement at age 35.

Leonard was a shadow of himself in his second career, though he reeled off a 19-0-1 record before being battered by Jimmy McLarnin and going down by Round 6 TKO in the final bout of his career.  

2. Marvin Hagler

Marvelous Marvin Hagler reigned as the undisputed middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987. His reign would have been longer had he not been the most avoided fighter in the sport in the late 1970s.

Hagler received his first title shot against Vito Antuofermo in 1979 but came away with only a draw. It was one of the worst decisions of the decade.

When Hagler got a second shot against Alan Minter in 1980, in Minter's home country of England, the Marvelous One took no chances, knocking the champ out in three rounds. After 50 fights he was finally the world champion and proceeded to become arguably the biggest boxing star of the decade.

Hagler successfully defended the title 12 times, winning each one by knockout, save a unanimous decision against the great Roberto Duran. His 1985 Round 3 TKO of Thomas Hearns was the most exciting fight of the past three decades.

Hagler dropped the title by split decision to Sugar Ray Leonard in 1987. It's a fight that is still hotly debated to this day.

The only fight Hagler lost without controversy was to the crafty Willie "The Worm" Monroe, early in his career. It was a loss he avenged twice by stoppage.  

1. Joe Louis

Joe Louis reigned as the heavyweight champion for a generation. He held the belt for 12 straight years, during one of the most turbulent periods in U.S. history. He successfully defended the belt 25 times.

His era stretched from the Great Depression through the hard years of World War II and into the postwar boom. During one of the nation's hardest eras, Louis was a symbol of stability and national pride.  

Louis' reign is sometimes denigrated for the quality of opposition he faced. While Louis did beat some below-average contenders during his long run at the top, he also beat six former or future world heavyweight champions.

Other contenders of the era seemed smaller for having to stand in the great Brown Bomber's shadow.