# Top 20 Bantamweight Boxers of All Time

> Pre-war ring pioneers share a ladder with modern unified champions at 118 pounds. Speed, power and longevity all make a case, so pick your own yardstick.

*By YPB Team · Published October 21, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/top-20-bantamweight-boxers-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Pete Herman** — score 1000/1000
   New Orleans champion who held the bantamweight crown in the 1910s and early 1920s.
2. **Eder Jofre** — score 874/1000
   Brazilian 'Golden Bantam' who ruled the division in two eras and retired with only two losses.
3. **Naoya Inoue** — score 753/1000
   Japanese 'Monster' who won bantamweight titles and became undisputed champion at the weight.
4. **Jeff Chandler** — score 753/1000
   Philadelphia champion who held the WBA bantamweight title for nearly seven years in the 1980s.
5. **Rubén Olivares** — score 668/1000
   Mexican puncher who won the bantamweight title with a brutal knockout streak in the late 1960s.
6. **Lupe Pintor** — score 668/1000
   Mexican WBC champion remembered for his tough, relentless style and classic fights in the 1980s.
7. **Mario D'Agata** — score 667/1000
   Deaf Italian bantamweight who became world champion in the 1950s.
8. **Wayne McCullough** — score 565/1000
   Northern Irish Olympic silver medalist who won the WBC bantamweight title in 1995.
9. **Lionel Rose** — score 565/1000
   Aboriginal Australian who beat Fighting Harada in 1968 to win the world bantamweight title.
10. **Panama Al Brown** — score 439/1000
   Tall, long-reaching Panamanian who held the bantamweight crown for more than five years in the 1930s.
11. **Kid Williams** — score 439/1000
   Danish-born American champion who held the bantamweight title during the 1910s.
12. **Fighting Harada** — score 439/1000
   Japanese former flyweight champion who beat Eder Jofre to take the bantamweight crown in 1965.
13. **Alfonso Zamora** — score 439/1000
   Mexican knockout artist who won the WBA bantamweight title in the mid-1970s.
14. **Harry Jeffra** — score 439/1000
   Baltimore boxer who held the bantamweight title in the late 1930s.
15. **George Dixon** — score 439/1000
   Canadian pioneer and early world bantamweight champion, the first Black world champion in any weight class.
16. **Manuel Ortiz** — score 439/1000
   Mexican-American champion who defended the bantamweight title a record number of times in the 1940s.
17. **Abner Mares** — score 0/1000
   Mexican-American champion who won bantamweight and then moved up to take titles in higher divisions.
18. **Terry McGovern** — score 0/1000
   New York bantamweight champion known for fast knockouts around 1900.
19. **Shinsuke Yamanaka** — score 0/1000
   Japanese southpaw who defended the WBC bantamweight title 12 times in the 2010s.
20. **Vic Toweel** — score 0/1000
   South African champion who took the bantamweight title from Manuel Ortiz in 1950.

Tags: sports, boxing, boxers, bantamweight