Top 10 Best Boxing Countries In the World (Ranked)

Top 10 Best Boxing Countries in the World (Ranked)

Boxing is one of the most popular sports on the planet. In today’s article, you’ll find out which countries are considered to be the best in boxing.

Boxing is a martial arts in which opponents of similar body weight punch each other while wearing padded gloves. The fight takes place in a fenced rectangular ring, in 3 to 15 rounds of three minutes each.

The object of the fight is to give the opponent as many blows to the parts of the body above the belt (head, torso) as possible while avoiding the opponent’s blows. It can be won by knockout (KO mark, from the English term knock-out), ie when the opponent fails to rise for ten seconds after being thrown to the ground, by technical knockout (TKO mark), ie when one fighter has no power to continue or the winner is determined by the decision of the referees after the agreed number of rounds.

A successful boxer is not just about punches and good footwork, tho; a truly great boxer knows that superior performance starts from the ground – with a solid pair of boxing shoes. Check out our comprehensive review of the Best Boxing Shoes to upgrade your game and move like a pro in the ring.

Boxing is still a very popular sport all around the world, and people from different countries have been very successful in it. But what are the top 10 best boxing countries in the world? Find out below.

We have taken all the major belts in the consideration. If you are interested in their differences, check out the article we wrote on that subject.

10. Thailand (THA)

Population: 69.43 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 44

Current Boxing World Champions: 2

Best boxer today: Amnat Ruenroeng

The best boxer of all time: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam

Thailand is a country from which another martial art, Muay Thai, originates. They also have some amazing boxers in their history.

Thailand has more than 40 boxing champions, and currently 2 world champions. They have also won 4 gold medals on Olympics, and a total of 14 boxing medals in the Olympics.

Best boxers from Thailand

Their current best boxer is Amnat Ruenroeng who held the IBF flyweight title from 2014 to 2016. He has a professional boxing record of 20-3-0.

Thailands best boxer of all time is Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, a two-time former lineal flyweight champion. He defended his title 17 times against 16 fighters, with both those numbers being a flyweight record.

9. Puerto Rico (PUR)

Population: 3.194 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 59

Best boxer today: Miguel Cotto

The best boxer of all time: Wilfredo Gomez

Puerto Rico is the smallest country on this list, and with only a little over 3 million people, they have 59 champions in history and have produced top boxers every decade since the ’30s.

Best boxers from Puerto Rico

Their best boxer of all time is Wilfredo Gomez, who was a three-time world champion. His seventeen consecutive knockouts in championship defenses are a record for all boxing divisions. He has a record of 44-3-1 with 42 KOs.

Then they have Carlos Ortiz, who won three world titles, two at lightweight and once at light-welterweight, and he holds the record for the most wins in unified lightweight title bouts in boxing history at 10. He has a record of 61-7-1 with 30 KOs.

There where many other great boxers from Puerto Rico, like Félix Trinidad, Miguel Cotto, Wilfredo Gómez, and Héctor Camacho.

Their best boxer today is Miguel Cotto, now retired, and he was a multiple-time world champion, and the first Puerto Rican boxer to win world titles in four weight classes.

8. Ukraine (UKR)

Population: 41.98 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 4

Current Boxing World Champions: 3

Best boxer today: Vasyl Lomachenko

The best boxer of all time: Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali Klitschko

Ukraine has produced some of the best boxers of modern time. Brothers Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko have combined professional boxing record of 109 wins (94 KO’s) and 7 defeats, including 46 world title fights, and are regarded as one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time.

Even though the Klitchsko brothers are now retired, Ukraine has new world champions in amazing boxers Oleksandr Usyk, Vasyl Lomachenko, and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

Best boxers from Ukraine

Wladimir Klitschko held the world heavyweight championship twice, including the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, and Ring magazine titles. He is considered to be one of the best heavyweight champions of all time. He had a boxing record of 64-5-0.

Vitali Klitschko is a three-time world heavyweight champion, the second-longest-reigning WBC heavyweight champion of all time, and has the fifth-longest combined world championship reign in history at 2,735 days. He held the WBO title; the Ring magazine title; and the WBC title twice. In 2011, Vitali and his brother Wladimir entered the Guinness World Records book as the pair of brothers with most world heavyweight title fight wins (30 at the time; 40 as of 2020).

Oleksandr Usyk is the first cruiserweight in history to hold all four major world championships—the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and WBO titles. While he was an amateur, he won World Championships and Olympics gold medals.

Vasyl Lomachenko is a three-weight world champion, and he held the unified WBA (Super), WBO and Ring magazine lightweight titles and the WBC lightweight title, and previously the WBO featherweight title, and the WBO junior lightweight title. He was one of the most successful amateur boxers of all time, having a record of 396 wins and 1 loss, and his only loss he avenged twice.

Oleksandr Gvozdyk held the WBC and lineal light heavyweight titles. He won a bronze medal at the Olympics and a gold medal at Summer Universiade.

7. Argentina (ARG)

Population: 44.49 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 37

Current Boxing World Champions: 2

Best boxer today: Marcos Maidana

The best boxer of all time: Carlos Monzón

Argentina has produced many great boxers through history, but their greatest boxer of all time is Carlos Monzón.

Best boxers from Argentina

Carlos Monzón held the undisputed world middleweight championship for 7 years, successfully defended his title 14 times against 11 different fighters, and is widely regarded as not only one of the best middleweights in history but also one of the greatest boxers of all-time pound-for-pound. He had a carrier record of 87-3-9 with 59 knockouts. He has the second-longest unified championship reign in middleweight history

There were many other great Argentinian boxers, such as Nicolino Locche – one of best defensive boxers in history, and he held the World Light welterweight title from 1968 to 1972, Pascual Perez – Argentina’s first world boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist, Victor Galindez – won Light Heavyweight championship and many more.

Today, their best boxer is Marcos Maidana, now retired, world champion in two weight classes, the WBA (Regular) super lightweight title and the WBA welterweight title.

6. Cuba (CUB)

Population: 11.34 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 18

Current Boxing World Champions: 5

Best boxer today: Guillermo Rigondeaux

The best boxer of all time: Jose Napoles, Teófilo Stevenson

Cuba had some of the best boxers on the planet. Unfortunately, because of the Communist regime in Cuba, their boxers can’t compete as professionals unless they go into exile. They had some amazing stars, such as Teófilo Stevenson, who is often considered to be the “Cuban Muhammad Ali”, he won 3 Olympic gold medals, but he could never fight as professional. Even this way, Cuba has some amazing boxing results and boxers. They have captured 67 medals at the Olympics, 37 of them were gold, while in the professional scene they’ve captured 18 world championships.

Best boxers from Cuba

Teófilo Stevenson is one of only three boxers in history that have won three Olympic gold medals. He could’ve had become five times Olympic gold medal winner if Cuba allowed its boxing team to participate in Olympics 1984 and 1988. In Cuba, he is regarded as their best boxer of all time.

Jose Napoles was World Welterweight Champion. His record of the most wins in unified championship bouts in boxing history, shared with Muhammad Ali, was unbeaten for 40 years. He had a record of 81-7 with 54 KOs.

They had other great boxers, such as Kid Gavilan, Luis Manuel Rodriguez, Kid Chocolate, Sugar Ramos, and many others.

Guillermo Rigondeaux is a two-weight world champion. He held the WBA (Regular) bantamweight title, and the unified WBA (Super), WBO, and Ring magazine super-bantamweight titles. He has one of the greatest amateur records of all time with a record of nearly 475 fights with 12 losses.

5. Philippines (PHI)

Population: 106.7 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 39

Current Boxing World Champions: 3

Best boxer today: Manny Pacquiao

The best boxer of all time: Ceferino Garcia, Pancho Villa, Manny Pacquiao

There where some great boxers from the Philippines in history. But, these modern boxers are just amazing. Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire had the world under their feet. But, we can’t forget some other great Filipino boxers, such as Ceferino Garcia, Pancho Villa, Flash Elorde, and others.

Best boxers from the Philippines

Ceferino Garcia is probably the best boxer that came from the Philippines. He was the world champion in the middleweight division, and only one from the Philippines that managed that. He has the most wins ever by a Filipino boxer. He has a record of 103-27-12 (68 KO).

Pancho Villa was the first Asian to win the World Flyweight Championship. He was never knocked out in his entire boxing career, unfortunately, he died very early at only 23. He had a record of 80-5-3 (23 KO).

Flash Elorde won WBC and WBA super featherweight titles, and holds the record at super featherweight division for longest title reign, spanning seven years. He has a record of 89-27-2.

Manny Pacquiao is regarded by many boxing historians as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. He is the only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing, has won twelve major world titles, was the first boxer to win the lineal championship in five different weight classes. He is also the first boxer in history to win major world titles in four of the eight “glamour divisions” of boxing: flyweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight, and holds the record of being the only four-decade world champion in boxing history, having held world championships across four decades (the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s). He has a record of 52-3-2 (38 KO)

4. Japan (JPN)

Population: 126.5 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 76

Current Boxing World Champions: 5

Best boxer today: Takashi Uchiyama

The best boxer of all time: Masahiko Harada

People don’t often think of Japan as one of the top greatest boxing countries in the world, but they are. They are best at lower weight classes, where they dominate. They have 76 world champions, which is third of all time.

Best boxers from Japan

Masahiko Harada (Fighting Harada) was a world boxing champion in the Flyweight and Bantamweight divisions. He had a worldwide status and was by far the most known Japanese boxer. He has a record of 62 fights with 55 wins and 7 losses.

There were other great Japanese boxers, such as Yoko Gushiken, Jiro Watanabe, Masamori Tokuyama, Masao Ohba, and many others.

Takashi Uchiyama, now retired, was holding the WBA super-featherweight title. He has an amateur record of 91-22 (59 KOs), including winning four lightweight titles. He has a professional record of 27 fights, 24 wins, 2 losses, and one draw.

3. Great Britain (GBR)

Population: 64.55 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 63

Current Boxing World Champions: 6

Best boxer today: Anthony Joshua

The best boxer of all time: Lennox Lewis

The United Kingdom, or Great Britain, is the birth nation of boxing. Even though they are not the greatest boxing country in the world, they have produced some of the best fighters in most of boxing’s glamour divisions, and are surely one of the top boxing nations now and in the history.

They had some amazing champions in history, including David Haye, Carl Froch, Ricky Burns, Lennox Lewis, John “Jack” Broughton, Ted “Kid” Lewis, Bob Fitzsimmons, Joe Calzaghe, Randolph Turpin, and many, many others.

Some of their most known current champions are Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.

Best boxers from Great Britain

John “Jack” Broughton was a bare-knuckle fighter, and first-person ever to standardize a set of boxing rules, somewhere in the 1740s. He invented those rules after he killed George Stevenson in a brutal fight that lasted 35 minutes. Some of those rules are still used worldwide. He had an amazing career that lasted 40 years, and he has never lost a fight. He also pioneered mufflers, that where latter known as boxing gloves.

Ted “Kid” Lewis he twice won the World Welterweight Championship. He became the first Englishman to win a world title in the US. Lewis won many British and European World titles, has a record of 227-40-23 and has won nine world titles from Featherweight to Middleweight.

Bob Fitzsimmons was the first boxer ever to win world championships in three different weight divisions. He finished his career with a record of 51-8-5 (44 KOs).

Joe Calzaghe is a former Welsh professional boxer who held world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, Ring magazine, and lineal super-middleweight titles, and the Ring light-heavyweight title. He holds the longest-reigning super-middleweight world champion record in history, holding the WBO title for over 10 years and defending the title against 20 boxers. He is also one of only four European boxers to retire as an undefeated world champion.

Lennox Lewis is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, and he’s the last heavyweight to hold the undisputed title. He finished his career with a record 41-2-1.

Anthony Joshua is a two-time unified heavyweight champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles.

2. Mexico (MEX)

Population: 126.2 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 192

Current Boxing World Champions: 9

Best boxer today: Canelo Álvarez

The best boxer of all time: Salvador Sanchez, Ruben Olivares, Julio Cesar Chavez

Mexico is the second-biggest boxing county in the world. They have produced more than 200 world champions in professional boxing, and are the only competition to the United States of America.

They have produced some of the best boxers in history, and are for a reason one of the best boxing countries in the world. Some of the biggest Mexican champion boxers in history are Julio Cesar Chavez, Salvador Sanchez, Ruben Olivares, Ricardo Lopez, Carlos Zarate, and many, many more.

And what to say about today’s amazing fighters from Mexico, like Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, and Juan Manuel Marquez. All amazing fighters.

Best boxers from Mexico

Salvador Sánchez was the WBC and lineal featherweight champion. Many believe that if it hasn’t been for his premature death, he could’ve been one of the greatest Featherweight boxers of all time. He had a record of 44-1-1.

Rubén Olivares was a world champion multiple times and is considered by many as the greatest bantamweight champion of all time. He is a two-time bantamweight champion and featherweight titleholder. He had an amazing record of 89-13-3 in one of the best bantamweight eras in history. Those 11 losses came at the end of his career, as well as above his optimum weight.

Julio Cesar Chavez is a multiple-time world champion in three weight divisions. He held the WBC super featherweight title, the WBA and WBC lightweight titles, the WBC light welterweight title twice, and the IBF light-welterweight title. Chávez holds many records, including most total successful defenses of world titles (27 shared with Omar Narváez), most title fight victories and fighters beaten for the title (both at 31), and most title fights (37); he has the second most title defenses won by knockout (21, after Joe Louis with 23). He has a boxing record of 107-6-2 with 86 knockouts.

Canelo Álvarez is a four-division world champion. He held unified WBA (Super), WBC, The Ring and lineal middleweight titles, the IBF middleweight title, and the WBA (Regular) super middleweight title. Álvarez previously held the WBA (Unified), WBC, and Ring light middleweight titles; the WBC, Ring, and lineal middleweight titles, the WBO light-middleweight title, and the WBO light heavyweight title.

1. United States (USA)

Population: 328.2 million

Total Boxing World Champions: 430+

Current Boxing World Champions: 18

Best boxer today: Floyd Mayweather

The best boxer of all time: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Bernard Hopkins, George Foreman, Oscar de la Hoya, Evander Holyfield, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson

Boxing in the US started in the 19the century, but it became the center of the professional boxing world in the early 20th century.

They “own” the four main boxing organizations that sanction professional boxing bouts – World Boxing Association (WBA) in 1962, World Boxing Council (WBC) in 1963, International Boxing Federation (IBF) in 1983, and World Boxing Organization (WBO) in 1988.

The USA has more than 430 boxing world champions and 18 current world champions. They are by far the most powerful boxing country in the world.

They have produced most of the best boxers in history, just some of which are Floyd Mayweather Jr., Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Bernard Hopkins, George Foreman, Oscar de la Hoya, Evander Holyfield, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson, and many, many more.

But, it has to be said, the popularity of boxing in the US is dropping year after year, and now in other countries, like Mexico, boxing is more popular than in the US. It was thought that the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao from 2015 could change something in that regard, but it was such a disappointing match that it was perceived as doing further harm to the image of the boxing in the US.

Regardless, here are some of the best boxers of all time, from the top best boxing country in the world.

Best boxers from the United States

Floyd Mayweather Jr. won fifteen major world titles including The Ring in five weight classes and the lineal championship in four weight classes (twice at welterweight) and retired with an undefeated record. He is BoxRec’s number one fighter of all time, pound for pound, as well as the greatest welterweight of his era. He retired with a record of 50-0-0.

Sugar Ray Robinson is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time. He is the reason for the creation of the pound-for-pound rankings. He was undefeated in 85 amateur fights, and then 41 pro fights, which made a streak of 126 straight victories. He won the welterweight title, and then five times middleweight title. Robinson had a record of 172-19-6 (109 KO).

Henry Armstrong was one of the few fighters to be a champion in three or more different divisions at the same time: featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight. He defended his welterweight title a total of nineteen times. He had a boxing record of 151-21-9 (101 KO).

Muhammad Ali again fighter regarded by many as the best boxer of all times. He won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division on the Olympics. Ali remains the only three-time lineal champion of the heavyweight division. He won his first heavyweight title when he was 22 years old. Then he converted to Islam and refused to participate in the Vietnam War, because of his religious and moral beliefs. Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title and did not fight for four years as a result, those where four of his prime boxing years. He returned to boxing and regained his heavyweight titles. Ali fought some of the best boxing matches in history.

Now that we’ve journeyed through the top boxing nations of the world, it’s vital that our female fighters equip themselves appropriately. The choice of glove can often be the difference between victory and defeat, as well as comfort and injury. If you haven’t quite found your perfect pair of gloves, you’ll find our in-depth review on the best boxing gloves for women a must-read, as it provides insider details on how gloves need to be more than just pink and cute, but rather ergonomically designed and protective.

Stefano Secci, French Savate Boxing, and Martial Arts champion
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Stefano Secci

Stefano Secci was born on the outskirts of Genoa. He began practicing sports at 11 by enrolling in a Ju-Jitsu class; from there, I have not stopped playing sports until today. At 16, he switched to French Savate Boxing, which I married and has remained my first and only true love. Our testing and reviewing method.
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