Boxing
Who is the Best Undefeated Boxer?
To stay undefeated in professional boxing is one of the hardest things to do. It requires consistency and the ability to show up on fight day like a champion. You also have to keep your body in great shape and only a few boxers actually make it to retirement without a single loss to their names so they are undoubtedly the legends of the sport. In the SB rankings below, we take a look at five of the best boxers who have ever lived in Jimmy Barry, Joe Calzaghe, Ricardo Lopez, Mihai Leu, and Kim Ji-won and see who came out on top and how special their careers were.
Joe Calzaghe defeats Roy Jones, Jr.//Getty Images
SB Market Index: How We Evaluate These Undefeated Champions
The ranking uses numbers from their records and takes into considerations what experts and the best media outlets say about them to create the SB Market Index rankings.
Industry Insights
The industry insights are from 10 boxing and sports media outlets that measures how much each of these undefeated boxers are spoken about in the “Greatest of all time” debate.
Industry Insights
| Source | Jimmy Barry | Joe Calzaghe | Kim Ji-won | Mihai Leu | Ricardo Lopez |
| BoxRec –“All-Time Pound for Pound” discussions | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| The Ring Magazine – “Greatest Undefeated Fighters” feature | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| ESPN – “Ranking the Best Undefeated Boxers Careers” | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| TalkSPORT – “Boxers Who Retired with a Perfect Record” | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Wikipedia – List of undefeated world champions | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Bleacher Report – “Boxing’s GOATs who Never lost” | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBOF) profiles | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Reddit r/boxing – Fan Polls on Undefeated Legends | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| DAZN – “The Perfect Record Club” | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| BoxingScene – Historical Figher Analysis | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total Mentions | 10 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
SB Score
| Boxer | Record (W-L-T) | Total Wins | Fights Without Loss (W+T) | SB Score |
| Jimmy Barry | 59-0-10 | 59 | 69 | 1.000 |
| Ricardo Lopez | 51-0-1 | 51 | 52 | 0.820 |
| Joe Calzaghe | 46-0-0 | 46 | 46 | 0.735 |
| Mihai Leu | 28-0-0 | 28 | 28 | 0.447 |
| Kim Ji-won | 16-0-2 | 16 | 18 | 0.267 |
The score above is calculated using the two metrics from their undefeated records which are Total Wins (60%) and Total Fights without a loss (40%).
SB Market Index
| Rank | Boxer | SB Score | Industry Insights | SB Market Index |
| 1 | Jimmy Barry | 1.000 | 10 | 8.200 |
| 2 | Ricardo Lopez | 0.820 | 10 | 8.164 |
| 3 | Joe Calzaghe | 0.735 | 10 | 8.147 |
| 4 | Mihai Leu | 0.447 | 1 | 0.889 |
| 5 | Kim Ji-won | 0.267 | 1 | 0.853 |
The Kings of Perfection: Barry, Calzaghe, and Lopez
Jimmy Barry tops the list on the SB Score because he had the most wins and fights without a single loss when he fought in the late 1800s and 59 times with 10 draws to his name. The high number of fights also shows just how consistent and fit he was.
Joe Calzaghe and Ricardo Lopez are close behind though. Calzaghe’s 46 wins without a single draw or loss made him one of the best middleweight champions for a long time and Lopez’s 51 wins and one draw as a Light Weight champion was very impressive as well.
The top three boxers all got perfect 10s in the industry mentions as well showing that they are always still talked about by the experts in the boxing industry.
The Challenge of Comparing Eras
It is difficult to compare boxers over history because boxing has been evolving wih time so Barry’s record of 69 fights without a loss looks like crazy numbers in this day and age. The fights had fewer rules as well and the fights were shorter too.
On the other hand, Calzaghe and Lopez fought in the modern era and the former faced top fighters like Jeff Lacey and Mikkel Kessler in his day. Lopez also was very impressive as he held his title for over 10 years against many top boxers.
The Lesser-Known Undefeated Champions
Mihai Leu and Kim Ji-Won also achieved the feat of retiring undefeated but are not talked about as much these days. Leu won 28 fights without any losses or draws and the Romanian was forced to retire due to injury.
Ji-won had 16 wins and two draws in his career in the 1800s and the South Korean also retired early but to pursue a career in singing and acting.
They don’t get much mention by experts but their undefeated records are still huge records in boxing.
Conclusion on Boxing’s Undefeated Legends
Our model puts Jimmy Barry at the top because he had a high number of wins and fights without any losses in his career but the modern day stars like Joe Calzaghe and Ricardo Lopez are right up there with him thanks to their impressive records and expert shouts in the media. Mihai Leu and Kim Ji-won are notable mentions as well but they are less recognized due to having shorter careers in boxing but these boxers have all shown that the record of being undefeated is truly special and takes hard work and consistency.
With a decade of sports writing expertise, Nigel Naicker has crafted compelling content across football leagues like the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as cricket and UFC. A passionate storyteller since 2014, Nigel joins the SportsBoom team, ready to deliver insightful narratives across various sports disciplines.