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for the longest middleweight title reign (10 years). From 2006-2014, Hopkins was an elite-level light heavyweight despite being in his 40s. He won The Ring light heavyweight championship by outclassing Antonio Tarver in 2006, set the record for oldest world titleholder in any weight class (46) by outpointing Jean Pascal in their 2011 rematch, then broke his own record by decisioning Tavoris Cloud at age 48 in 2013. Hopkins is also the oldest boxer to defend and unify world titles. He faced 21 Ring-rated fighters from 2000-2016, including five Hall of Famers (Trinidad, De La Hoya, Winky Wright, Joe Calzaghe and a faded Roy Jones Jr.) and 10 Ring champs (Jones, De La Hoya, Wright, Calzaghe, Tarver, Glen Johnson, Kelly Pavlik, Jermain Taylor, Jean Pascal and Chad Dawson). He was The Ring’s 2001 Fighter of the Year and reached No. 1 in the pound-for-pound rankings. 4. Naoya Inoue – The Monster won world titles in four weight classes from 2014-2023, including Ring championships at bantamweight and junior
from 2014-2025, including Ring championships at lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight and super middleweight. He’s the only male three- division undisputed champion of the four-belt era and the only four-division Ring champ in history. His signature victories include Canelo Alvarez, Errol Spence Jr., Shawn Porter, Viktor Postol, Israil Madrimov and Ricky Burns. Crawford earned the BWAA’s 2014 Fighter of the Year award and is the frontrunner for The Ring’s 2025 honor. He’s currently No. 1 in The Ring’s pound-for-pound rankings. 6. Roman Gonzalez – From 2007-2016, Chocolatito won world titles in four weight classes – strawweight, junior flyweight, flyweight and junior bantamweight. He was Ring
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Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Diego Corrales. Other notable victories include Zab Judah, Marcos Maidana (twice), Genaro Hernandez and Jesus Chavez. He was The Ring’s 2007 Fighter of the Year and was selected as the Fighter of the Decade (2010s) by the BWAA. 3. Bernard Hopkins – From 2000-2005, Hopkins solidified his status as the finest middleweight champion of his generation. In 2001, he defeated Felix Trinidad to become the first undisputed champ since Marvin Hagler. Three years later, he was crowned the first undisputed champ of the four- belt era (in any weight class) when he stopped Oscar De La Hoya. Hopkins set the middleweight title defense record (20) in 2005, as well as the record
featherweight. He’s a two-division undisputed champion (at 118 and 122 pounds) and will likely have made six defenses of the unified junior featherweight titles by the time this issue sees print. Inoue’s signature victories include Nonito Donaire (twice), Stephen Fulton, Omar Narvaez, Ryoichi Taguchi, Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Luis Nery, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Marlon Tapales, Juan Carlos Payano and Adrian Hernandez. He’s won Ring awards for 2018 and 2019 KO of the Year, 2019 Fight of the Year and 2023 Fighter of the Year, and he is the first Japanese fighter to reach No. 1 in The Ring’s pound-for- pound rankings.
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5. Terence Crawford – Bud won world titles in five divisions
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