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Boxing has had many great fighters since the sport's origins began in the 19th century.
We take a look at the top five greatest boxers of all-time.
Rocky Marciano
The legendary American fighter was a very dominant boxer in the 50s as he held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956, before he sadly passed away in 1969 in a plane crash.
Marciano, who is the only heavyweight champion to have finished his career undefeated, recorded six title defenses which included wins over Jersey Joe Walcott, Roland La Starza and Ezzard Charles.
Nicknamed the Rock from Brockton, Marciano was known for his relentless fighting style, formidable punching power, stamina and exceptionally durable chin.
The Rock from Brockton had a knockout-to-win percentage ratio of 87.76% which remains one of the highest in heavyweight boxing history. He has been included by boxing historians in lists of the greatest boxers of all time.
"My first professional trainer was Charley Goldman [the man who guided Marciano]. We used to sit and talk about Rocky Marciano all the time. He had as much determination as any fighter ever," boxing trainer Don Turn said on The Guardian.
"There was no quit in him at all. He knew what his limitations were and he made up for them by working as hard as any fighter who ever lived.
"Once a boxer starts cheating in training, he can't be great. Marciano never cheated in training. Out of the thousand or so days that he was champion, I'll bet he was in the gym and working hard for all but 150 of them.
"If there was a problem in training camp, it was that they had trouble getting sparring partners because Marciano hit them so hard. He wouldn't even take a phone call during the 10 days before a fight. That's how focused his mind was."
Marciano Fights: 49 - 49 Wins - 0 Defeats - 0 Draws
Sugar Ray Robinson
The accomplished American boxer enjoyed success in the welterweight and middleweight divisions during his career between 1940 and 1965.
This prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight.
Former world welterweight and middleweight champion Robinson, whose real name is Walker Smith Jr, went on a 91-fight unbeaten streak between 1943 and 1951, the third-longest in professional boxing history.
Smith was ranked number one on The Ring magazine's list of "80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years" in 2002 and is also the first boxer in history to win a divisional world championship five times.
Robinson Fights: 200 - 173 Wins - 19 Defeats - 6 Draws - 2 No Contests
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Joe Louis
The boxing legend dominated the heavyweight division for 17 years as he competed from 1934 to 1951 making him one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time.
Also known as the Brown Bomber, Louis' championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months, during which he participated in 26 championship fights.
The Brown Bomber, who had the longest single reign as champion of any heavyweight boxer in history, was remarkably victorious in 25 consecutive title defenses.
Louis, whose real name is Joseph Louis Barrow, was ranked as the best heavyweight of all time by the International Boxing Research Organization in 2005 and was also ranked number one on The Ring magazine's list of the "100 greatest punchers of all time."
Louis Fights: 69 - 66 Wins - 3 Defeats - 0 Draws - 0 No Contests
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Floyd Mayweather Junior
The former boxing superstar won fifteen major world titles in five weight classes and the lineal championship in four weight classes (twice at welterweight).
Mayweather, who won a bronze medal [featherweight division] at the 1996 Olympic Games, has a record of 26 consecutive wins in world title fights (10 by KO), 23 wins (9 KOs) in lineal title fights and 24 wins (7 KOs) against former or current world titlists.
Nicknamed Money, Mayweather retired with an undefeated record (50-0) and is often referred to as the best defensive boxer in history, and being the most accurate puncher since the existence of CompuBox.
Money has been ranked as the best pound for pound boxer in the world twice in a span of ten years by The Ring, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, BoxRec, Fox Sports and Yahoo! Sports.
"No one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali was better than me," Mayweather said on Bleacher Report.
"No one could ever brainwash me and tell me that. But one thing I will do—I'm going to take my hat off to them and respect those guys because those are the guys that paved the way for me to be where I'm at today. ...... Leon Spinks beat him when he had seven fights.
"They'd never put a fighter in there with Floyd Mayweather with seven fights. So you gonna tell me that it's cool to lay on the ropes and take punishment and let a man tire himself out from beating you and then he basically fatigued? You hit him with a few punches and he go down and quit, and you want to be glorified for that?
Mayweather Jr Fights: 50 - 50 Wins - 0 Defeats - 0 Draws - 0 No Contests
Muhammad Ali
The boxing icon enjoyed a lot of success in professional boxing and Olympic Games, hence some believe that he is the greatest boxer of all-time.
Formerly known as Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, Ali won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Olympic Games at the age of 18.
Ali then won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset at age 22 in 1964 and went on to become the leading heavyweight boxer of the 20th century.
The late boxer remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion.
His fight with George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the Jungle. has been called "arguably the greatest sporting event of the 20th century."
Ali Fights: 61 - 56 Wins - 5 Defeats - 0 Draws - 0 No Contests
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