I think the reason why their a lot of undefeated boxers because the top boxers don’t fight each other. It’s like they duck and run from each other that’s just my take.

A lot of top boxers are undefeated because they mostly avoid each other trying to protect that undefeated streak. That's why you have people like Manny Pacquiao that's ready to challenge anyone because he lost earlier in his career and doesn't need to protect an undefeated record (This is just a part of it, but you get the point).

Because of Floyd’s career fans started to really value that 0, so now promoters/boxers are scared to lose the 0, so they take less risks. Dudes like tank and Jaime munguia are great examples.

This is why the UFC has been growing viewership so much. The best fight the best and most defend their record over and over.

This is why is almost impossible to be unbeaten in the UFC, in boxing you can have a belt fighting “Nobody’s” and then you can have the better competition because of the mandatory fights, but we all know that there are a lot of cherry-picking boxers so having a mandatory doesn’t mean shit. But in the UFC for you to get the gold you NEED to fight the best, at least the top 5 guys. Imagine Lomachenko having to fight Garcia, Tank and then getting the chance to fight Haney for undisputed, that shit will never happen!

Well the trouble with boxing is you're not allowed to lose and still have a career. Lose more than twice and they say you're finished. I watch a lot of muay thai and there are guys there with 120 plus fights and 18 losses, it's not the fact that they lose that's important it's whether or not they are able to get a win back over who beat them, in fact rivalries with fighters trading multiple wins/losses to each other are actually exciting as they get to know each other the more times they fight.

We used to fight a lot at my old middle school and I was undefeated for a long time. I think my stats were something crazy like 78:0. Of course that was until I was fired.

Seeing this very thumbnail now after the Garcia vs Haney fight is funny

It's so funny how the "fans" escape all forms of blame. Take Anthony Joshua as a prime example - all these fans always complain about how the best don't fight each other and care too much about their 0 on their record but then when people like AJ fight the best and then lose, he suddenly becomes "the worst fighter ever" or "a horrible human being". And you could even see how that affected him mentally to the point where he just imploded post-fight to Usyk 2. The system with belts in boxing is definitely flawed but today's toxic culture is to blame as well.

And let’s be honest, having a unbeaten record in todays era is not that impressive at all, there are so many “Pro” boxers that clearly should not be in the ring, just look at that Pineda guy that KSI fought, i know amateur boxers that would kill that guy.

I'm undefeated right now! 0-0-0. And hopefully stay undefeated like that the rest of my life

As a mma fan mostly, I do appreciate that our community isn't as fixated in 0 losses as boxing, you got guys like Jorge who had many losses and became the third biggest star in the sport, Charles is widely viewed as a top 5 talent even with, what, 10 losses in his record? That being said, the whole structure of the UFC also means lower fighter pay and situations like Gary Goodridge and Spencer Fisher, which are horrifying.

I've been waiting for someone to cover this topic forever. I've always had a distaste for undefeated fighters, and I think that goes back to my roots as a boxing fan. In MMA, being undefeated actually means something. There's quite a few padded record people, especially in Russia and Brazil, but they almost always get exposed eventually and never make it big, and if they do then they get exposed in a big organization. There's a few anomalies like Khabib (that is a bit hated by some for retiring too early and protecting his undefeated record, much like a boxer, but he did fight quite a few top guys). Boxing is literally the only sport on Earth with this problem, and I don't really know why the 0 is so important in this sport. I guess we have Floyd Mayweather to blame for some of it, but it's killing the sport. If the best fought the best when they should, I'm sure we'd see the amount of undefeated boxers in history drastically go down, like more than half of these fighters would've lost. That's just some of my 2 cents, great video. It's awesome to see someone bringing to light padded records. Keep up the good work man!

I remember my kickboxing days, just as a recreational activity. Some heavy sparring in between gyms, but never went as far to get an amateur fight, let alone a professional one. Yet one weird day, a friend from the gym forwarded me an e-mail from some guy who was asking whether he would go into a pro kickboxing fight next month. Pro fight? That friend of mine was literally at the same level as I was, good enough for an amateur bout. Couple of e-mails in-between, it turned out the opponent would be a regional beast of a fighter who was waiting for a breakthrough. Luckilly my buddy said no. That fighter found another can to demolish and had 12-0 record with 10 ko/10tko's then.

I love how both boxers on the thumbnail are now defeated 😂😂 EDIT: based on the drug test issue, might just be ryan 😂

This thumbnail is ageing beautifully

There needs to be a boxing promotion that works like ufc. One belt for each weight class, fighters have to fight fighters at their skill level to advance in ranking, top guys Must fight for the belt of the division they're in. But sadly that will never happen. Edit: Unless Dana decides to bite the bullet and start the boxing promotion he's always talking about

This was basically the plot of Rocky 3. Mickey was protecting Rocky by getting easy fights and he'd been refusing to fight Clubber Lang for years. That's why Clubber Lang started to publicly taunt Rocky and insult his wife. Of course, in the context of the film, it made sense. Rocky took a lot of damage in his fights with Apollo and Mickey knew that people like Clubber Lang could've seriously hurt Rocky. Which makes me think: is avoiding career-ending damage the real point of all this record-padding? If you only take fights you can win, you can stay healthy and have 50+ fights, make lots of money, and ride off into the sunset. Makes a lot more sense than getting knocked out in half of your fights and being broke and punchdrunk at 40 years old.

Crazy How the two on the front cover have both been defeated now.

It’s crazy to think that the thumbnail is outdated now.

A few years ago, I was doing some work for a state athletic commission. I was inspecting gloves and staying with the boxers/trainers in the locker room before their fights. After the first few fights, I noticed that all of the guys from my locker room kept winning. In fact, every single one of them did. It turns out that the state I was living at the time was know as a state where people go to pad records. Every match was a mismatch. I felt bad for one guy. He was paid his cash for the night, but he was so apologetic for losing quickly. He begged the matchmaker for a future bout. He really didn't realize that he was brought in to get an easy win for his opponent. Last I check on boxrec, he didn't have a second match. One of the winners kept...well... winning. A couple of years ago, I saw him on a Fox Sports card. It looks like his team was ready to cash him out. He was an undefeated main even fighter, but was outclassed and KOed rather early to a crafty veteran that has been in with world champs throughout his career. Last I checked on boxrec, he went back to fighting guys that wouldn't challenge him, or his records.

It means the "best" boxers aren't fighting each other. Boxing has been broken since forever. There needs to be a league, with proper rankings, a season, or playoffs. There is no limit on imaginitive thought. Human beings can absolutely come up with a lucrative way to organize the sport. A shame we may never see it come to fruition.

This thumbnail funny asf. Both arent undefeated anymore

I view boxing rankings a lot like college sport rankings, specifically in football. You can have teams near .500 (in that their losses are almost equal to their wins) but still be ranked in the top 25 teams solely because they've played some incredibly difficult teams and the people ranking take that into consideration. The difference is that college sports fans are pretty aware of this, and as a result, networks are hesitant to promote a team as "undefeated".

The KSI vs the ACTUAL pro fight is a perfect example of this. I know they had to scramble to find a guy to replace the two that were cancelled, but I think it serves as a good example of this. The event itself was mostly entertaining. I really wish boxing had a single organized main promotion. It would be the best thing for the sport.

A lot of people know about this issue and have talked about it but this guy did a solid quantitative breakdown of it based of his own effort in spending a bit of time gathering these numbers. Props to him. Great work

One of the reasons I Stan Naoya Inoue so much is that his fists are rated E for everyone. Guy won a title in his 4th fight and since then has done nothing but hunt down belts and defend his throne.

The reason why Chavez’ 0 was such a big deal back in the is cos he fought the top boxers (as well as easy fights obviously) to get where he was. He sure had ‘activity fights’ but he fought multiple hard fights (Rosario,Mayweather,Laporte,Ramirez,Martinez etc)and still kept that 0. It was the same with Floyd Mayweather. By just avoiding the hard fights it doesn’t mean anything today.

Boot has one of the most manufactured records out right now. Dude hasn’t fought anyone yet is called one of the best

And now 1 year later the two in the thumbnail both are no longer undefeated

As a current pro boxer (3-0) you've got extremely valid points bro. Love from South Africa :)

Interesting fact Ali vs Frazier 1 was the first ever heavyweight world champion title fight with two boxers with undefeated records. The undefeated record became more and more popular to have, until now it's standard.

a problem you don’t mention is the fact that because of that low barrier of entry, a new guy with amazing potential can’t face someone who made a name for their self because it will seem to the public eye that he has chose an easy fight and it won’t sell. this puts the fighters in a loop that obligates them to stat pad to mount the ranks and face the big dogs

Lomachenko has got 2 losses already and I'm still freaking dying to see his next fight. Every performance of his is an art, every opponent is top class! The same is applicable to Usyk!

The padded record a lot of the time is a real problem even for people who are not undefeated, so many early fights are against people who are really poor opposition. You can rack up 20 fights unbeaten by fighting the pro equivalent of bum fights. I think the number of fights you are likely to have nowadays is a big reason for protecting your record though, Sugar Ray Robinson was able to lose almost 20 times but he had 201 fights, nobody is getting near that number nowadays once they become a legit recognisable name.

It's quite funny to see this video popping up in my recommendations when both Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney lost their perfect records in just a year-long period of time

Bro I love your videos, I’ve always been a huge mma fan, but you have single-handedly made me want to get more into boxing. Keep up the good content my man.

You’ve put together a really simplistic video with credible information and easily understandable focal points. Earned my sub👍

Thumbnail aged well both of them are not longer undefeated

I am a bit late but kind of agree. Imagine protecting your “record” just because you cherry pick your fights rather than going against the best because of “there is no incentive on picking a fight you would lose” and you kept your record. They could do so many things to change this broken and stupid system but choose not to.

Basically it goes like this: Get signed to a top promotional network. Build up a record of 10-20 or even more fights against guys that are nowhere near your level in order to obtain a highlight reel and be more marketable. Fight for a regular belt against a fighter with another padded record or one that's more marketable (33-2-1 or something along the lines of that) "This guy is the next big thing, he beat an experienced veteran!" Wait for the current major champion to vacate their belts and fight for those, or fight a B rate champion who you know you can beat. Hold the belt hostage or move up in weight Repeat Boxing is in such a sad state as it is. I'm also not saying that there are undefeated champions out there that don't deserve the record they have. Some have been beating top competition or actual solid contenders right from the get go, but there are so many out there that haven't fought anyone on their level to date and still get so much recognition and respect despite not doing anything to deserve it. Just because you lose doesn't mean your career is over, all the greatest fighters of all time have lost to someone and they're still recognized as great. This mindset is a plague and has to be taken care of.

"Devin Haney is the undisputed champion, who has fought champions; Ryan Garcia is a social media personality; they are not the same. - - - - 'Everyone wants to be Floyd Money Mayweather, no one wants to be Pretty Boy Floyd.'. Devin Haney.".

You made the right decision with the thumbnails, the white background and black letters for some reason makes people click also titles with “why” or giving the notion that you will be explaining something gets them to click as well, you cracked the algorithm with less than 20k subs

I'm not afraid of leaning more about a sport iv followd gur so long .this channel has taught me so much more about a sport I love thank you ever so much.

Dude I’m so happy you make these type of videos! I was literally just about to ask my boxing coach why being undefeated was such a big deal when almost everyone is undefeated.

I remember years ago there were two boxers fighting each other and they were both something like 6 fights and 6 losses, and the commentator said "Somebody's 0 has got to go" and I damned near fell of my chair from laughing.

There both defeated now

It's about time someone makes a video on this topic. Great cover!

I wanna see fights like the Ali Frazier fight. Rivalries who are matched in skills go toe to toe, and if you lose, you get up and fight again to get redemption. Gives the winner something to lose, and the loser something to gain, which makes a much more exciting fight.

dude your content is a breath of fresh air in terms of proper truthful (generally) takes on the sport. I say generally because there are little things that take some credibility out your videos like you lumping in dazn as a boxing promotion with PBC and Top Rank when its actually a streaming platform where the third promotion you meant to put Matchroom goes. other than that keep it up.

in my opinion this was started by mayweather. He had marketed himself(his record) to its full potential. Promoters saw how easy to market an undefeated record and as long a fighter stays undefeated followers would continue to grow. After that, everybody followed suit. From promoters(AL Haymon, De la hoya, Hearn ETC.) to fighters that duck other fighters who they dont believe they can beat. preserving their "0" means $$$ to these promoters and fighters.

lmao garcia in the thumbnail NOT ANYMORE 🤣

I hate boxing. Top guys duck each other. So many belts nobodies can call themselves champions. Real champions hardly ever fight number one contenders. When you do fight a top contender and lose everyone calls you a can and claim you were never good

I’m mainly an MMA fan. But I’ve started to get into boxing and this channel has helped me alot to understand things. So thank you. It’s you and joe vincent docs that make me understand the game and the history more!

From what you said, it's like a surgeon having a great survival record for a dangerous surgery because he just has someone else do the more vulnerable patients.

That thumbnail is very ironic now

this is why i respect usyk so much he always wants to fight the best and isnt ducking anyone i mean he even fights his opponents in their home country

In particular example this certainly explains why Amir Khan turned down various fight offers from Kel Brook across about 15 years! It also explains why having a few losses but mainly wins on your record can still mean you're an all time great in your divisions. Eg like the likes of Roy Jones Jnr, Paqman, GGG, Naseem Hamed, Mike Tyson, Ali, Larry Holmes etc as all immediately spring to mind! Losing a couple does not mean you're not a historical stand-out in your weight divisions when you fight loads of other top boxers! I feel this definitely applies in Paq Man's, Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Roy Jones Jr's cases as well as the Kilitscho brothers too! Thank you! I'm going to suscribe to your channel now because of this original and insightful video!

Man I love to hear you talk about NBA so entertaining fr

Floyd’s undefeated record is still impressive bc he fought anyone the people would think could beat him

Thanks so much for this video. Just started watching boxing & UFC, found myself always on the fighters wiki to check what their record was. Starting with UFC the undefeated with khabib really seemed to mean something as he also beat a lot of tough competition. That's why I was also a bit confused when starting with boxing, so thanks for putting that into context!

Your channel is so cool man. Keep it up!

So I just wanna mention how Am having a bad day at work and I am watching this on break. I had to check my phone bc I was thinking that I was playing it. But I can hear the very subtle Jill Scott he loves me instrumental in the video. Very small touch but greatly changed my mood.

Top boxers are so good at their craft, that they even know how to bob and weave away from other top competition, absolutely stunning!

George Foreman was defeated by Alì, but then he came back in an amazing way. Nowadays, you can't do that in boxing. That's why Ngonnou had to start in MMA. He really wanted to box.

This video was so well made this format has been rolling boxing for so long the point of the matter is the best are not fighting the best this is what's killing boxing

Boxing has got to be the most fixable mainstream sport, thank God most of the promoters and executives guiding its direction are so incredibly honest, transparent and straight-laced.

I mean just look at the “pro boxer” ksi just fought last night. A lot of “undefeated” boxers fight these type of opponents because it’s so easy to go pro

Since mayweather made a billion it has ruined the idea of being undefeated and us fans make it worse second someone loses 1-2 fights we say they should retire or a bum. Look a Joshua lost to Ruiz’s and then beat him. And lost to usyk one of the best around . Joshua is still a top draw and can earns millions and still be in good fights . My two fav fighters are lamotta and Duran both have double digit loses and still both legends .

Great video, you made me look at boxing in a totally different way

I think what boying needs is some kind of elo number where winning against worse boxers will give you less points and you have to fight the best to keep going up.

This fascination of undefeated record is very recent in my opinion which is actually hurting boxing in many ways. Promoters, Franchise belts, and undefeated records are really hurting boxing. De la hoya fought everybody

UFC is so good because it doesn’t make a big deal abt undefeated records. we value title defenses and performance

Great video and explanation. Most fans don't understand this part of the boxing game.

Great video essay, I always wondered why do many could have a perfect record

my guess would be also the fact that there is a lot of amateur fights. in MMA youll have 10-20 amateur fights in boxing depending 80-300

To add to this point, fighters in the ufc are more likely to have fought less fights

This was eye opening. Thank you!

Naoya Inoue was fighting world class opposition almost from the jump, debuting against someone who was 16-4 if I recall correctly. So his unbeaten record is pretty impressive. As far as MMA goes, the barrier to entry is incredibly easy, far easier than in boxing, I'd say. It is a higher barrier to entry if you only consider top promotions like the UFC, One FC, Bellator, etc. But if you consider how difficult it is to simply become a professional MMA fighter who competes on local cards, then MMA absolutely has a lower barrier to entry.

As someone with no formal knowledge of boxing, i find this very interesting in how this methodology of picking fights is the same that is used in Guilty Gear Strive to cheese getting into the top rank, Celestial. You could challenge yourself with the crème of the crop players who top out their character’s rank who compete in tournaments, or you could try and find a relatively lower ranked player in celestial and easy matchup for your character to more guarantee getting in. I didn’t know how applicable this was to being recognized as an undefeated pro fighter lmao. Also it’s interesting how pro boxers dodge each other to maintain records, because I would expect pushing the envelope of competition would always be the draw of promotion. But to understand that their living belongs to their perceived higher image, it seems like celebrity status is taking forefront over competing at the highest possible level.

Basically “undefeated” fighters are carefully crafted by management teams and promoters with the hope they’ll become big name attractions and draw money. Their first ten fights are typically gimmes to develop their professional experience and build their name. After a certain point, the fighter is meant to take a big step up and challenge themselves. The issue with that is no promotion these days wants to see their golden goose lose, especially to a fighter from a different promotion. As a result many undefeated fighters are kept in a protective bubble. It’s unlikely for example, that either Charlo will face Canelo or Benavidez for example.

Who’s here after seeing the thumbnail from the tank fight?

Great insight, as a new actual fan lf mma and boxing I have never thought of it

The lack of competitiveness and the focus on perfect records will be boxings downfall. I really hope boxing changes, somehow, but it’s sad that it may never change.

I don't really follow professional fighting but I had noticed this phenomenon, thanks for explaining it! The governing bodies for boxing should definitely be putting the top brass against each other more often, not just to make these records more transparent but also to create better fights.

Your one of the realist boxing channels i swear

Many years ago, I used to have local fights available on On Demand as part of my cable subscription, and this practice was in full effect with all of the bouts you could see. Many, MANY times, you would see a young gun with a 4-0-0 record matched up with some poor sap who was 18-25-6 and you could just *tell* it was set up to at least be an easy steamroll for the young gun. Once in a blue moon, however, you did see fighters with "good" records risk them against each other, and those made for great viewing.

Watching UFC and Boxing is night and day, All the so called Elites in boxing dont fight each other its annoying

It’s kinda what Khabib did, the first 14 fight around were against mma rookie

I like that there is no quality barrier for boxing As you stated towards the end, there’s not really a reason for them to want to change it, because technically everyone wins in someway But also, if there was, we wouldn’t have wild cards like Deontay, Wilder And it gives people in rough patches in opportunities that they may have otherwise not had we’re all familiar with stories of people who had nothing picked up gloves And made some level of living for themselves You’d be hard-pressed, to find these kind of stories, nearest frequently, and any other sporting organization

Great video along with analytics

I personally believe fans play a big part. It wasn’t like the old days where you could have a Duran type record and be considered good. If you lose twice fans will call you trash, overrated etc and thus you probably won’t be main eventing a fight thus losing money. Regis Prograis is good example of this 🤷🏾‍♂️

As a die hard boxing fan, it is absolutely infuriating being a fan of this sport. The fact a boxer can take one L and their career is considered “done” or in “jeopardy” is toxic beyond words. Paired with the fact we never see the fights we want. Politics destroyed the sport. MMA have absolutely done it right, especially the UFC having bringing EVERYTHING under one roof. It’s incredibly fan friendly and it’s any wonder why it’s the fastest growing sport/ organization in the world

This aged well 😂

Will there be a video covering the MMA world whether it's in UFC or other brands? This video is informative and eye-opening so I'm now wondering if the fights professional MMA fighters compete in are equal or at least more fair than in boxing.

In the defence of boxing, most of those fighters won't end their careers undefeated, and the few boxers that do end their careers undefeated (even the most highly respected ones like Floyd Mayweather and Joe Calzaghe) often get criticized for not fighting the best competition by many fans. In boxing promoters pad records for ratings and publicity and then cash their fighters undefeated records in once their fighters stock are at its highest. It's a frustrating process for us fans but it's a tried and test business method.

I remember looking into this when I was really into MMA a few years ago. It's funny finding an undefeated (or even with just 1 or 2 losses) fighter and most of their opponents have literally the opposite record. You don't hear about all the guys who are 1-10

Very well explained in a (acadamic) structured way that everybody can understand🙏

Hilariously, even when they get defeated, they are presented as 'formerly undefeated'.