Life stories of the champions and contenders who shaped boxing.
Gene Fullmer left a Utah copper mine to win the middleweight title from Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957, reigned as NBA champion from 1959 to 1962, and los...
Nino Benvenuti, born in Isola d'Istria, won Olympic gold in Rome, held world titles at junior middleweight and middleweight, fought Emile Griffith thr...
Emile Griffith left Saint Thomas for a New York hat factory and became a welterweight and middleweight champion. His career was shadowed by Benny Pare...
Richard Ihetu lost his first four fights in Liverpool, then won world titles at middleweight and light heavyweight before backing Biafra in Nigeria's...
Bob Foster's life, from his Texas birth and Albuquerque youth to his 1968 knockout of Dick Tiger, 14 title defenses, losses to Frazier and Ali, and hi...
Leon Spinks went from a St. Louis housing project and the Marine Corps to Olympic gold in 1976, then took the heavyweight title from Muhammad Ali in o...
Michael Spinks won Olympic gold with his brother Leon in 1976, ruled the light heavyweight division unbeaten and became the first reigning light heavy...
Abandoned in Philadelphia at five and named by nuns, Matthew Saad Muhammad came back from the brink against Marvin Johnson and Yaqui López to hold the...
Dwight Braxton took up boxing while serving time in Rahway State Prison and became Dwight Muhammad Qawi, WBC light heavyweight champion, WBA cruiserwe...
Steered into boxing by his pioneering sister Yvonne, Iran Barkley beat Thomas Hearns twice, lost a classic to Roberto Durán and won titles in three di...
From the Bronx and Carolina, Puerto Rico, to a world title at 17 and wins over Palomino, Hope and Durán, Wilfred Benítez's career burned fast, and his...
Pipino Cuevas won the WBA welterweight title at 18 in a Mexicali bullring and defended it 11 times, almost always by knockout, before Thomas Hearns an...
