# The 23 Greatest Lightweight Boxers of All Time

> A century of 135-pound champions, with gaslight-era scientists on one side and today's pay-per-view headliners on the other.

*By YPB Team · Published November 1, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-23-greatest-lightweight-boxers-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Roberto Duran** — score 1000/1000
   Panamanian Hands of Stone who ruled the lightweights through the 1970s with ferocious pressure.
2. **Benny Leonard** — score 999/1000
   New York master who held the world lightweight title from 1917 to 1925, the longest reign in the division.
3. **Lou Ambers** — score 930/1000
   Herkimer Hurricane who traded the 1930s lightweight title with Canzoneri and Armstrong.
4. **Freddie Welsh** — score 891/1000
   Welsh boxing scientist who held the world lightweight title from 1914 to 1917.
5. **Gervonta Davis** — score 818/1000
   Baltimore knockout artist who headlined pay-per-view as WBA lightweight champion.
6. **Alexis Arguello** — score 818/1000
   Nicaraguan gentleman who added the WBC lightweight crown to titles at two lighter weights.
7. **Julio Cesar Chavez** — score 734/1000
   Mexican legend who won and unified lightweight titles during his long unbeaten run.
8. **Henry Armstrong** — score 734/1000
   Perpetual-motion fighter who held the lightweight belt while also champion at feather and welterweight.
9. **Ken Buchanan** — score 734/1000
   Scottish stylist who won the undisputed lightweight title in 1970.
10. **Sammy Angott** — score 636/1000
   Clutch-and-hold specialist who held the NBA lightweight title in the early 1940s.
11. **Hector Camacho** — score 636/1000
   Flamboyant Macho Man who held the WBC lightweight title in the mid-1980s.
12. **Battling Nelson** — score 520/1000
   Durable Danish-American who fought Joe Gans in epic lightweight title wars.
13. **Ike Williams** — score 520/1000
   Hard-hitting champion who held the lightweight crown from 1945 to 1951.
14. **Beau Jack** — score 520/1000
   Georgia shoeshine boy turned two-time lightweight champion and Madison Square Garden headliner.
15. **Joe Brown** — score 520/1000
   Old Bones, who made eleven defences of the lightweight title between 1956 and 1962.
16. **Devin Haney** — score 520/1000
   Californian who became undisputed lightweight champion in 2022.
17. **Vasiliy Lomachenko** — score 382/1000
   Ukrainian two-time Olympic champion who unified lightweight titles with dazzling footwork.
18. **Diego Corrales** — score 382/1000
   Chico who rose off the canvas twice to stop Castillo in the 2005 lightweight fight of the year.
19. **Juan Manuel Marquez** — score 382/1000
   Mexican counter-puncher who reigned as lightweight champion from 2008 to 2012.
20. **Floyd Mayweather Jr.** — score 382/1000
   Pound-for-pound great who won the WBC lightweight title with two wins over Jose Luis Castillo.
21. **Shane Mosley** — score 382/1000
   Sugar Shane, the unbeaten IBF lightweight champion of the late 1990s.
22. **Ad Wolgast** — score 0/1000
   Michigan Wildcat who took the lightweight title from Battling Nelson in a 40-round war in 1910.
23. **Edwin Rosario** — score 0/1000
   Puerto Rican puncher who won lightweight world titles four times.

Tags: sports, boxing, boxers, lightweight