10 Gold-Medal Knockout Kings: USA’s Boxing Legacy

You probably didn’t know it, but the United States used to literally kick the world’s ass in boxing. We knocked Soviets and Cubans and Europeans (and anybody else who dared step into the ring with us) out cold. In stories of historic boxing matches by old-time sportswriters, Olympic fights were one-on-one wars. The reputation of our entire country weighed in the balance—every uppercut a blow against communism; every right cross a direct hit against Castro. Those days are over. Somewhere along the way, many of our best athletes turned to more popular sports, like football, basketball and even MMA, for a quicker path to a paycheck. Boxing lost its lure. The result? USA boxing fell on hard times. We haven’t produced an Olympic heavyweight gold medalist since 1988. Worst yet, there’s nobody in the pipeline.

Rather than dwell on the dreary boxing present, Men’s Fitness decided to revisit our storied glory days. We won’t list all 48 American Olympic boxing champions (yeah, there’ve been that many). But we will give you our top 10 recent American boxing superstars. These guys won a gold medal even before they wore a championship belt.

Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker, Lightweight, 40-4-1-1

Gold Medal – 1984 Olympics, Los Angeles, CA

World Champion in four weight divisions

Whitaker was a slick fighter who dominated most opponents. His two most famous matches had controversial endings to other boxing legends; one was a defeat to Oscar De La Hoya (where he outpunched him and scored an official knockdown) and the other was a draw to Julio Cesar Chavez. Sweet Pea was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Oscar De La Hoya “The Golden Boy”, Super Featherweight to Middleweight, 39-6-0

Gold Medal – 1992 Olympics, Barcelona, Spain

World Champion in six weight divisions

It’s tough to decide where De La Hoya’s legacy is most impressive, in the boxing ring or in the bank. In the ring he defeated 17 world champions and won ten world titles. He also earned an estimated $700 million in pay-per-view income. Like we said, it’s tough to decide.

Floyd Patterson, Middleweight, 55-8-1

Gold Medal – 1952 Olympics, Helsinki, Finland

Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion

Patterson is given credit for a quote that nearly every coach in every sport has regurgitated to his players after a tough loss. While they often take creative license for their own purposes, here it is: “They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most.” When he wasn’t doling out wisdom about never giving up, he was one hell of a fighter, winning the heavyweight title at only 21 years old.

Michael Spinks, Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight, 31-1

Gold Medal – 1976 Olympics, Montreal, Canada

Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight Champion

Most people remember Michael Spinks for the worst minute-and-a-half of his professional boxing life, when Mike Tyson absolutely demolished him in the first round of their heavyweight title fight in 1988. 91 seconds – that’s all it took to end his career. Spinks would never fight again, though few remember that his loss to Tyson was the only professional fight he ever actually lost.

Sugar Ray Leonard, Welterweight to Light Heavyweight, 36-3-1

Gold Medal – 1976 Olympics, Montreal, Canada

Champion in five weight classes

Sugar Ray Leonard ushered in the big-money era of pro boxing, becoming the first fighter to earn $100 million in purses. His fights with Tommy Hearns and “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler both earned “Fight of the Year” honors by The Ring magazine and he earned the prestigious “Boxer of the Decade” award for the 1980s.

Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Heavyweight, 56-5

Gold Medal – 1960 Olympics, Rome, Italy

Heavyweight Champion

Muhammad Ali is arguably the most famous athlete of all time. He was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and was in too many epic battles in the ring to count. Before he became a sports and cultural icon, he was just a kid named Cassius from Kentucky who won a gold medal for his country.

Leon Spinks, Heavyweight, 26-17-3

Gold Medal – 1976 Olympics, Montreal, Canada

Heavyweight Champion

Spinks’ most famous two fights were back-to-back brawls with Muhammad Ali. In the first fight, he beat a 36-year-old Ali to win the heavyweight championship. Seven months later he lost to Ali and gave it right back. He was roughly a .500 fighter the rest of his career, but a win over Ali and an Olympic gold medal isn’t a bad list of accomplishments at the end of the day.

“Smokin'” Joe Frazier, Heavyweight, 32-4-1

Gold Medal – 1964 Olympics, Tokyo, Japan

Heavyweight Champion

Joe Frazier is the slightly less famous half of the greatest heavyweight boxing rivalry ever (Ali is the other half, for the non-boxing initiated). The Thrilla in Manila. The Fight of the Century. These are just a few of the famous bouts Frazier was involved in. On the back-end of his career he lost twice to Ali and twice to George Foreman, but prior to that, he was, without question, one of the toughest fighters in the history of the heavyweight division, racking up 29 straight wins before his first defeat.

George Foreman, Heavyweight, 76-5

Gold Medal – 1968 Olympics, Mexico City, Mexico

Heavyweight Champion

Insert George Foreman Grill joke here. Insert joke about all his sons being named George here. At this point in his celebrity career, it’s almost too easy to take pot shots at the once dominant heavyweight champion. However, prior to his career as the king of the fat-reducing grill, Foreman may have been the hardest punching heavyweight of all time, recording 68 knockouts over a pro career that spanned nearly three decades.

“Merciless” Ray Mercer, Heavyweight, 36-7-1

Gold Medal – 1988 Olympics, Seoul, Korea

Heavyweight Champion

Mercer made some poor fight decisions in his career and never really caught the public’s imagination as a champion. He won a lot of fights, but he might be most famous for losing to nearly every heavyweight champion of his era, including Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield and Wladimir Klitschko.