The Best Female Boxers of All Time – Top 10 Female Boxers — The Sporting Blog (2024)

Women’s boxing is gaining more prominence each year, with the sport’s top talent pulling in the numbers and putting on thrillers.

Women-dominated cards are being promoted and they are selling out arenas.

However, it was a long and strenuous journey to get here- and some of the best female boxers of all time have played their part in bringing the sport to this point.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out who is the best female boxer in the world, with all the pound-for-pound ranking systems that we have today.

However, who are the top 10 female boxers of all time? Well, the following article pays tribute to the women who have thrived in this sport and have broken all sorts of glass ceilings.

1. Claressa Shields

We start off strong with a fighter who’s already considered to be the best women's boxer of all time, despite actively competing today.

On an amateur level, Claressa Shields is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. On a professional level, she is the only boxer in women’s (or men’s) competitions to win all the major world championships at the same time.

Shields is a powerful and fast boxer who is considered to be the pound-for-pound best in the world today by all the ranking organisations.

She has also ventured into MMA, as she does cagefighting on the side.

Shields has done all of this at a very young age and experts say that she still hasn’t hit her prime yet.

2. Katie Taylor

Here’s another boxing legend that’s also an Olympic gold medalist.

Katie Taylor easily has the best amateur career on this list, as she has had more than a hundred wins, and has won countless championships.

Unsurprisingly, she excelled when she went pro, winning the world title after just five matches, and then going undefeated.

She picked up nine world titles in seven different weight classes; a world record.

Taylor is one of the most exciting boxers to watch due to her speed and aggression. She is currently the best-ranked featherweight fighter in the world and one of the best pound-for-pound.

Despite being in her mid-thirties, she still continues to thrive at the top of her game.

3. Amanda Serrano

Amanda Serrano is a boxing veteran! She has been fighting for more than a decade now, and she is still going strong today.

Serrano is one of the most accomplished fighters in boxing, as she has excelled and won titles in a whopping seven divisions, which is a world record.

Also, she has more than forty fights under her belt; thirty of which have been KO wins.

The prime reason for her having such a decorated career is that she is arguably the most complete fighter in all of women’s boxing.

She has everything from power and speed to skill and high fight IQ.

Serrano continues to be one of the top-ranked featherweights in the world today, showing her incredible consistency.

4. Lucia Rijker

Lucia Rijker is a fighter who paved the way for all of the other women here, as she fought in an era when women’s boxing had little to no support from the community.

Rijker still managed to do well, providing an exciting fighting style.

She was a knockout artist who went undefeated, and even earned the nickname: "The Most Dangerous Woman in the World.”

Rijker is also a successful kickboxer, having competed in thirty-six matches, thirty-six of which she went on to win.

After her retirement from boxing, Rijker has also had a successful coaching career, having been on the teams of Diana Prazak and UFC legend Ronda Rousey.

5. Ann Wolfe

Ann Wolfe is one of the most legendary top female boxers ever.

Physically, the Hall of Famer is one of the biggest fighters on this list.

She has competed in the light heavyweight division and she has won world championships in it, too. She won three world titles in three different weight categories at the same time.

One of the biggest highlights of Wolfe’s career was her spectacular KO win over Vonda Ward.

Her finish is still one of the most-talked about highlights of the sport, as it brought a lot of eyes to women’s boxing.

After her retirement, Wolfe went into coaching and she has been an asset to many boxers including former boxing sensation James Kirkland.

6. Laila Ali

Despite being the daughter of the iconic Muhammad Ali, Laila Ali still managed to create her very own, everlasting legacy in boxing.

Ali fought in the super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, winning world titles in both of them.

She packed quite a punch, since twenty one of her twenty four wins came by knockout- and she retired undefeated.

As far as the length of her boxing career is concerned, she didn’t even fight for ten years, but still managed to accomplish all of the above.

She did this while bringing women’s boxing some much-needed publicity.

It should also be noted that Ali started her career rather late compared to the others on this list, and she didn’t come from an amateur route.

7. Holly Holm

She may not be the best on this list, but she is the most popular among MMA fans.

Holly Holm made history as the first ever fighter to beat the mighty Ronda Rousey in the UFC, as she won the bantamweight world title.

What many don’t know, however, is that the Preacher’s Daughter was an accomplished boxer before becoming an MMA legend.

Holm has won world championships in the welterweight and light welterweight weight categories.

She is the only fighter in history to hold belts in boxing and the UFC at the same time.

Holm has made sixteen title defenses and was always high up in the rankings during the time she was active in the sport.

8. Christy Martin

You cannot have a list containing the best women boxers without having one of the trailblazers of the sport in it.

Christy Martin fought in the nineties and has had one of the longest careers in women’s boxing.

Martin has given us many iconic fights that have been credited for putting female boxing on the map.

After decades of being in the sport, she has an insane forty-nine wins and just seven losses to her name.

She also picked up the WBC super welterweight title during her last few years in the game.

Martin now holds her rightful places in the Nevada and International Halls of Fame, and on this list.

9. Regina Halmich

Regina Halmich is more than just one of the pioneers of women’s boxing in Europe; she is one of the GWOATs in the sport.

Halmich was the poster girl of the flyweight division in her day, as she won the IBF female flyweight title and defended it twenty-nine times successfully, retiring with the belt around her waist.

She also won the super- and light-flyweight titles.

So, there’s no surprise that Halmich has a stellar record, as she won fifty-four of her fifty-six fights!

Halmich made such an impact in Europe that her popularity also made the rounds among American fans of women’s boxing.

Ring magazine has even declared her second in their top women boxers list.

10. Cecelia Braekhus

When it comes to accomplishments, Cecilia Braekhus puts some of your favourite male boxers to shame.

The legendary Norwegian fighter may just be the greatest female welterweight fighter of all time.

This claim is backed up by the fact that she became one of the select few to hold all the four major world titles at once.

She later broke that record to become the only boxer in history to hold five belts at once.

She’s also had a stellar amateur career, as she’s won all sorts of silverware.

Braekhus is ranked as one of the best female boxers in the world today and she was undefeated for thirty-six fights.

Honorable Mention: Giselle Salandy

Giselle Salandy was a boxing hotshot who held numerous titles at once in the light-middleweight division.

Salandy made history by becoming the youngest fighter to win a world championship and the only one to compete for six belts for unification.

Fighting out of Trinidad and Tobago, she overcame countless obstacles to achieve greatness.

She lost her immediate family at a young age and was left to fend for herself. Still, she was able to make a name for herself in the sport.

Unfortunately, Salandy’s career ended abruptly with her untimely passing in a car accident.

With time, she would have easily become the greatest light-middleweight boxer in women’s boxing.

The other names that deserve recognition on this list include Mia St. John, Mary Kom and Natascha Ragosina.