10 Best Pound For Pound Boxers Of All Time

6. Joe Louis

Record: 66-3, 52 KO

Fought Between: 1934-1951

Titles: World Heavyweight Champion

Joe Louis, known as the Brown Bomber, was born in Alabama in 1914 and had an impressive amateur career (50-4) before turning pro. The Brown Bomber knocked out Cinderella Man James Braddock to become World Heavyweight Champion in 1937 and his reign as champ lasted 140 consecutive months, during which time he defended his title 26 times which was a heavyweight record.

That alone would be enough to consider placing him on any pound for pound list but because his career transcended the sport of boxing his place is assured. At the time boxing as a sport was in a lull following the post-Jack Dempsey years and mired in professional gambling but the hardworking, honest Louis helped elevate the sport and made it popular again among sports fans.

Joe Louis has a cultural impact felt outside the ring as well. He is widely regarded as the first African-American to achieve hero status in the USA and became, through fights against German poster boy Max Schmeling, the focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to World War II. As such, you cannot underestimate the impact Joe Louis had on not just boxing but also sport itself.