Currently ranked #3 in the world by BoxRec, heavyweight boxer Anthony ‘AJ’ Joshua is a former unified world heavyweight champion, but lost his titles, for the second time, by unanimous decision, to Oleksandr Usyk at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 25, 2021. He also lost a rematch with the unbeaten Ukrainian, by split decision, at the Jeddah Superdome, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on August 20, 2022, thereby taking his professional record to 24-3-0, including 21 knockouts.
The first time Joshua lost his titles, and his hitherto unbeaten 22-0-0 record, at Madison Square Garden, New York on June 1, 2019, he was on the receiving end of one of the major upsets in boxing history. Making his debut in the United States, in a fight in which he had, frankly, little to gain, Joshua was knocked down four times by his unfancied opponent, Andy Ruiz Jr., before losing by technical knockout in the seventh round.
Ruiz Jr. took what was described as the ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ when the highly-regarded Jarrell Miller was denied a boxing license by the New York State Athletic Commission after testing positive for a variety of prohibited substances. He was identified as a ‘potential banana skin’ for Joshua by one pundit, but generally regarded as having minimal chance of beating the Briton, who was priced up at a prohibitive 1/25 to retain his titles.
Nevertheless, the fact that Joshua was defending a pre-fight record of 22-0-0 bears testament to his early success and meteoric rise to the top of his profession. The Watford-based fighter made his professional debut at the O2 Arena, London on October 5, 2013, when he needed just 2 minutes and 47 seconds to register a first-round technical knockout of his opponent, Emmanuel Leo.
After a succession of early stoppages, Joshua was taken beyond three rounds for the first time by compatriot Dillon Whyte, again at the O2 Arena, London, on December 12, 2015; Joshua won that bout by technical knockout in round seven. It was not until the eight fights later, at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff, that defending WBO world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker took him the distance but, even then, Joshua won by unanimous decision.
Stockport-born Richard ‘Ricky’ Hatton made his professional boxing debut against Colin McAuley at the Kingsway Leisure Centre in Widnes in September, 1997, winning by technical knockout in the first of four scheduled rounds. Forty-three fights and just over a decade later, he would finally surrender his unbeaten record to the similarly unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On December 8, 2007, in a fight billed, imaginatively, as ‘Undefeated’, Hatton (43-0-0) challenged Mayweather Jr. (38-0-0) for the World Boxing Council (WBC) and The Ring world welterweight titles. In the sixth round, Hatton was deducted a point by referee Joe Cortez for hitting his Mayweather on the back of his head, having pushed him off-balance through the top rope.
Thereafter, Hatton began to tire and Mayweather started to take control. With just under two minutes remaining in round ten, Mayweather landed a powerful left hook that knocked Hatton to the canvas, via a ringpost. Hatton rose at the count of eight, but was unsteady on his feet and, despite hanging on valiantly, was caught with two more left hooks that knocked him down again. After 1:35, Cortez waved off the contest, without starting a count, to give Mayweather victory by technical knockout.
Hatton subsequently returned to the light-welterweight division, making two successful defences of his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) world light-welterweight title, against Juan Lazacano and Paulie Malignaggi, before being knocked out in the second round by Manny Pacquiao, back at the MGM Grand Arena, in May, 2009. After a three-year hiatus, he made a brief, but unsuccessful, return to professional boxing before retiring with a 45-3-0 record.
The ‘Fight of the Century’ was the second defence of the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Association (WBA) World Heavyweight Titles by Joe Frazier, against Muhammad Ali, and took place at Madison Square Garden, New York City on March 8, 1971.
Ali, of course, had previously held the WBC and WBA titles, but was stripped of both in 1967, after refusing to be inducted into the US Army. Nevertheless, Ali remained unbeaten, with a career record of 31-0, and was still the lineal world heavyweight champion. After three years of inactivity, he had beaten Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena in late 1970 before turning his attention to Frazier, whom he predicted he would knock out in the sixth round. Frazier, 27, was two years younger than Ali and weighed in nearly 10lb lighter; he had achieved universal recognition when defeating former WBA World Heavyweight Champion Jimmy Ellis at the same venue the previous February and, having successfully defended the both titles against Bob Foster at the Cobo Arena, Detroit nine months later, entered the ring with a career record of 26-0.
Ali chose to go toe-to-toe with Frazier and the unbeaten pair fought at a furious pace throughout. The predicted sixth-round knockout never materialised; in the eleventh round, Frazier rocked Ali with two left hooks, which sent him stumbling across the ring and, in the final round, landed another, knocking him to the canvas. Ali survived the round, but referee Arthur Mercante scored the fight 8-6 in favour of Frazier, while judges Artie Aidala and Bill Recht scored 9-6 and 11-4, respectively, to hand ‘Smokin’ Joe’ a unanimous decision.
Watch The Fight of the Century
As oft repeated, boxing is the most unpredictable sport, so it is no surprise that fighters who finish their careers as undefeated world champions are a rarity. Rocky Marciano did so in 1956 but, at the time of writing, the retired former champion who holds the record for the most fights without losing is Floyd Mayweather Jr., who retired, for the third time, in 2017 with a career record of 50-0-0.
In fact, Mayweather Jr., who turned 43 in February, 2020, is threatening to come out of retirement yet again, if his Instagram feed is to be believed. He retired for the first time in 2007, before coming back, with no little success, in 2009, and retiring again, with a career record of 49-0-0, in 2015. In 2017, Mayweather Jr. was tempted out of retirement, once again, for a one-off contest, aptly dubbed ‘The Money Fight’, against Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Champion, Conor McGregor at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Mayweather Jr. won, courtesy of a tenth round technical knockout, taking his career record to 50-0-0, and banking $275, in the process, but looked poor against a highly inexperienced opponent.
Mayweather Jr. Has been widely criticised for ‘diluting’ his legacy; in his heyday, he won fifteen major world titles, in five weight divisions – super featherweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight and light middleweight – and, granted his recent insistence that he is retired from boxing and would only consider ‘entertainment’ fights in future, he may be boasting that he is ‘The Best Ever’ for a while longer.
Watch all of Floyd Mayweathers career knock outs