Welcome to Retiredboxers.org.  The best place to read about retired and active boxers.  We strive to feature information about well-known male and female boxers.   The female boxers might not be as well known as George Foreman, Mike Tyson or Sugar Ray Leonard but they have been every bit as important for the sport and have made a lot for promoting the sport among women.  Examples of famous female boxers that we think deserve more recognition include Cecilia Brækhu, Claressa Shields and Lucia Rijker.

Featured Male Boxers

Evander Holyfield

Evander Holyfield (born 1962) is a retired professional boxer from the United States who competed from 1984 to 2011. During his professional boxing career, he reigned as the undisputed cruiserweight champion in the late 1980s, before gaining weight and becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion in the early 1990s.  Read More…

George Foreman

George Foreman (born 1949) is a professional boxer from the United States who competed in 1969-1977 and then again 1987-1997. As an amateur boxer, Foreman won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. As a professional boxer, he is a two-time heavyweight champion. Read More…

Sugar Ray Leonard

Ray Charles Leonard (b. 1956) – commonly known as Sugar Ray Leonard – is a retired professional boxer from the United States. His long career as a boxer lasted from 1977 to 1997, during which he won world titles in five weight divisions, won the lineal championship in three weight divisions, and became the undisputed welterweight champion. Read More…

Featured Female Boxers

Cecilia Brækhus

Cecilia Brækhus (born 1981) is Colombian-born Norwegian professional boxer and former kickboxer. As of 2019, she has been the undisputed female welterweight boxing champion since 2014, and she is the first female boxer of any weight class to hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles simultaneously.  Read More…

Claressa Shields

Claressa Shields (born 1995) is a professional boxer from the United States. She has held multiple world championships in middleweight and super middleweight. The became the undisputed female middleweight champion in April 2019, after previously holding the unified WBC and IBF super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. Read More…

Lucia Rijker

Lucia Rijkner (born 1967) is a professional boxer and kickboxer from the Netherlands who competed until 2004. She did 17 professional boxing fights and won all of them, including 14 by knock-out. Her kickboxing record consists of 37 fights, including 35 wins, one loss and one draw. Of her 35 kickboxing wins, 25 was by knock-out. Read More…

Money in boxing

Boxing is a sport that turns over a lot of money.  Boxers can earn enormous purses when they agree to fight a certain opponent.  They are guaranteed large amounts regardless of whether they win or lose.  Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao received 410 million dollars between them for the 2015 fight. Floyd Mayweather has been a part of several other fights with a total purse of more than 100 million dollars. Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield II is another example of a fight with a huge purse.  The two boxers shared 100 million dollars back in 1997.  More than 20 years ago.

To pay for these large purses the fight promoters need to make sure that the fights bring in a lot of money. Most of the money comes from pay per view fees and tickets to attend the events.  Good seats can be very expensive.  The fights are social events where you can expect to see movie stars, rock stars, top athletes, billionaires and a lot of other members of the top of society.

Boxing is also very popular among gamblers and huge amounts are bet on top fights.

Betting on boxing

Most sportsbooks offer betting on boxing. This is true for both physical sportsbooks in Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City, and other cities as well for online sportsbooks.  Online sportsbooks make it easier to bet on different events than it ever has been before and they also offer a very large selection of boxing and other sports to bet on.  Some online sportsbook even offers casino gambling and poker. Bethard sportsbook & Casino is an example of a good online sportsbook that offers a lot of boxing to bet on as well as online casino gambling. Bethard offer a large selection of other sports as well and one of the worlds best live casino.  Both Bethard casino and Bethard Sportsbook offer generous bonuses.  This is especially true for Bethard live casino. Bethard live casino offer an enormous bonus.

Online sportsbooks often offer better odds than those you find at a regular sportsbook. This is because online sportsbooks have more players and lower overhead than most regular sportsbooks.  Physical betting stores are expensive, and online sportsbooks do not have this expense. There are several websites that allow you to compare the odds offered by different online sportsbooks so that you always can place your bets where you get the best odds.

The History of boxing

Boxing, often referred to as the “sweet science,” has a rich and complex history that spans millennia. Its origins can be traced back to ancient civilizations, with the earliest depictions found in Sumerian reliefs from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans also practiced forms of boxing. The ancient Greeks introduced boxing as an Olympic sport in 688 BC, where it was a brutal contest with few established rules.

The modern iteration of boxing began to take shape in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. Early bouts were bare-knuckle and had no standardized rules. This changed in 1867 when the Marquess of Queensberry Rules were introduced, which mandated the use of gloves and established three-minute rounds with one-minute rest intervals. These rules transformed boxing into a more structured and safer sport.

In the 20th century, boxing gained immense popularity worldwide, producing legendary figures like Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Frazier.