Via Gav Duthie: Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 undefeated record still stands. Another challenger for the throne is ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez who fell after his 44-0 record was halted following a dominating performance from Dimitrii Bivol last weekend. Ramirez is the most credible threat to the record, so this article is geared toward the next nominees for the award. We analyze 5 fighters that could potentially dethrone Floyd and how likely they are to do so.
Record
I should clarify my position on this before going into details about who can surpass this record that Floyd has claimed. I don’t really consider this an actual record at all. Floyd’s last official professional fight against Conor McGregor gave him a 50-0 official record. He claims this puts him past record holder Rocky Marciano, who retired undefeated by 49-0. It should be noted clearly that many boxers have surpassed the score 50-0. Unfortunately, unlike Floyd Mayweather, not all of them make up to $300 million a fight so keep boxing until they finally lose. Most recently, Chayaphon Moonsri retired in 2019 with a score of 54-0 only to be lured by the promise of televised matches in the US. His record is now 55-3 fights after his early years. Ricardo Lopez equalized 51-0-1 with his only goal after an accidental header in round 7 against Rosendo Alvarez. He lost a point for that if he didn’t he would be 52-0. Yori Boy Campos was 56-0 away from elite talent before Felix Trinidad stopped him and Julio Cesar Chavez was 87-0 when he drew with Pernell Whitaker. As a result of these examples, I’ve always felt uncomfortable calling this a record, but retired Mayweather’s 50-0 hasn’t been beaten so it’s hard to argue.
Who can beat it?
Anyway for the fun, let’s see who else can match this. So that the top 5 can pass 50-0. Before diving into it, I will just mention that despite the supreme talents, I feel like the likes of Naoya Inoue, Errol Spence Jnr, Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk are too old to fight multiple times. Although all may retire undefeated, they will not fight 50 times. Ryan Garcia is too inactive and plans to retire at a young age and with his weight class competitive, that’s why I didn’t pick Gervonta Davis either.
(5) Shakur Stevenson 19-0
25 years old
He’s already a 2-weight world champion and fights at the highest level. He didn’t add weight to his last defence so now enters a division with Tanks David, Ryan Garcia, Vasyl Lomachenko and Devin Haney. Stevenson’s skills are immense but he’s on the lions team and he’s only 19-0. He’s also 25 years old so despite his young age the chances of him fighting 32 more times to win at this level would be surprising. The WBC ordered a light showdown between him and Isaac Cruz so he could fight Haney soon.
(4) Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez 17-0
Age 22
A bit younger but similar to Shakur in that he fought at an elite level to defeat two of the greatest underdogs of this generation, Carlos Cuadras and Sor Rungvisai. He has fought 3 times in 2022 and at his age he has a long way to go in the sport. He’s put on weight to win a world title and will even step back to win another. Who knows how his body will develop and where he will fight. Like above, he worked at the elite level. He vacated his WBC Super Flyweight title to be contested by Roman Gonzalez and Estrada for their three-part bout. He can fight the winner or if he moves down he will probably target Julio Cesar Martinez or Sunny Edwards. These are all tough matches so despite his immense talent it will be difficult for him to go undefeated.
(3) Devin Haney 29-0
23 years old
Undisputed world champion in the hardest weight division in boxing at the age of 23. It speaks volumes that he has accomplished so much and racked up 29 consecutive wins without a hit. close to a failure. He’s massive and could easily have ended up in the welterweight or above in his career. He can also get through 50 matches for his age. Even so, I hope that this generation involving the likes of Haney, Tank Davis, Ryan Garcia, Vasyl Lomachenko, George Kambosos, William Zepeda, Michel Rivera, Frank Martin and Teofimo Lopez is remembered for the men. These fight each other instead continue to raise their records. The likes of Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard are remembered for their trio with Frazier, Norton and Duran so even though they lost the matches, they still made their mark.
(2) Jaron Ennis 29-0
25 years old
Ennis ‘Boots’ is considered by many to be the most talented boxer in boxing. He is yet to enter the competition but is eliminating boxers at the opponent level. How easily he dominated the likes of Sergey Lipinets and destroyed Thomas Dulorme. He has been compared to Roy Jones Jnr, which is not often the case. In my opinion, he has a huge chance to beat 50-0. He’s starting to campaign for the big fights. His team petitioned the IBF to order a fight with Errol Spence and he also said he would be willing to face Terence Crawford if he asked. I think with Spence’s age and especially Crawford, Ennis is in an important position to compete against Vergil Ortiz.
(1) Jaime Manguia 40-0
Age 26
Definitely not the most talented of the 5 I picked but he won 40 and is the most dynamic senior boxer in the sport. He is fighting his 4th match of the year against Gonzalo Coria (21-5), which could be another easy win. Despite being a successful world champion at 154lbs, his next fight will be his 7th non-title bout in middleweight. Whether he doesn’t want to fight or just wants to stay active, he doesn’t step up. It seems very few people talk about him going up against Janibek, Golovkin or Charlo so he can keep winning. Manguia will probably hit more than 60 games in his career with ease so it depends on his level of play if he can beat 50-0 or not.
