Muhammad Ali is one of the most famous athletes to have ever lived and is a global sporting icon.

When known as Cassius Clay, he won gold in the light heavyweight division at the Rome 1960 Olympics.

Frequently dubbed as the greatest boxer of all time, he went on to dominate the professional heavyweight divisions where he became the first person to win a world title three times.

Ali was involved in some of the most iconic fights in boxing history - including the Fight of the Century and the Thrilla in Manila against Joe Frazier.

He also fought George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle and was known for his lightning quick movement and punching speed, which sparked his catchphrase "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee".

Known as much for his outlandish personality and trash talking as his exceptional skills in the ring, Ali was also an outspoken social activist and a huge role model for African Americans. 

He famously refused to be drafted into the American military during the Vietnam War and died in 2016 aged 74, after battling in later life with Parkinson's Syndrome.

American Joe Frazier - nicknamed "Smokin' Joe" - won Olympic gold in the heavyweight division at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics.

He graduated to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world between 1970 and 1973.

Frazier unleashed huge punching power in his fights and was the first person to defeat Muhammad Ali - doing so in the Fight of the Century in New York City in 1971.

He also battled Ali in the Thrilla in Manila where he was unsuccessful.

He died in 2011 aged 67, after contracting liver cancer.

George Foreman became Olympic champion in Mexico City in 1968, when he triumphed for the United States in the heavyweight division.

He later became a two-time world champion in the professional ranks, firstly after becoming the first person to defeat Joe Frazier in 1973.

The big puncher lost his world titles to Muhammad Ali after the famous Rumble in the Jungle fight in Zaire, his first defeat in his 41st fight.

However, he remarkably regained two belts in 1994, 20 years later at the age of 45, when he knocked out Michael Moorer.

Foreman remains as the oldest world heavyweight champion in history.

He has since been successful in business, particularly with his range of grills.

Sugar Ray Leonard won Olympic gold in Montreal in 1976, in the light welterweight division.

He also won the Pan American Games title in Mexico City a year earlier.

Leonard then enjoyed a phenomenal professional career, where he won world titles in five different weight classes and the lineal crown in three.

In the welterweight division, he became the undisputed world champion.

Lennox Lewis won super-heavyweight gold for Canada at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

He also won the Commonwealth Games title in Edinburgh two years earlier.

Lewis would later switch allegiances to Britain where he would become a three-time world heavyweight champion.

A two-time lineal champion, Lewis is also the last boxer to unify the heavyweight division.

Oscar De La Hoya won Olympic gold for the United States at Barcelona 1992, in the lightweight class.

He went on to win an astonishing 11 world titles in six different weight divisions.

This has cemented him as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time, while he is among the greatest ever pay-per-view earners.

De La Hoya is still active in the sport as a promoter - and created Golden Boy Promotions in 2002.

Ukraine's Wladimir Klitschko topped the Olympic podium in the super heavyweight division at Atlanta 1996.

He went on to become a huge force in professional boxing, winning the world heavyweight title on two occasions.

This includes unifying the belts of the WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and Ring Magazine.

One of half of the famous boxing Klitschko brothers - his sibling Vitali was also a multi-time heavyweight world champion - Wladimir was known in the ring for his huge punching power.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced himself by winning a bronze medal in the featherweight division at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics.

He later enjoyed an undefeated professional record of 50 victories and no losses, which saw him win world titles in five different weight divisions.

Mayweather won 15 major world championships in all and is known for the accuracy of his punching and his outstanding defensive work.

He has generated more pay-per-view sales than any other boxer and was previously the best paid athlete in the world.

In 2006 he founded his own promotion firm, Mayweather Promotions.

Kazakhstan's Gennady Golovkin won the silver medal in the middleweight division at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

He also won the IBA world title in the division in Bangkok in 2003 and, a year earlier, the Asian Games gold medal in Busan.

In the professional ranks Golovkin developed into one of the best pound-for-pound fighters.

He dominated the middleweight ranks and became a two-time unified champion.

Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko is a two-time Olympic gold medallist in two different divisions.

He won the featherweight title at Beijing 2008 and then the lightweight gold at London 2012.

At the IBA World Championships, he won two gold medals in 2009 and 2011, again at featherweight and lightweight.

Lomachenko has gone on to become a professional world champion in three weight classes - featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight.

Britain's Nicola Adams won two Olympic gold medals in the flyweight class - firstly at London 2012 when women's boxing debuted.

Adams then defended her title at Rio 2016 and won a number of other titles in the amateur ranks.

This includes IBA world gold in 2016, the Commonwealth Games in 2014, the European Championships in 2011 and the European Games in 2015.

After turning professional, Adams won the WBO flyweight world title but she was forced into retirement in 2019 after five victories and a draw.

Doctors ruled that she risked losing her sight if she continued to compete.

Claressa Shields of the United States is a double Olympic champion, having won the women's middleweight title at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.

She won two IBA world titles, in 2014 and 2016, and the Pan American Games gold in 2015.

Shields is now unbeaten as a professional, having won world titles in three weight divisions.

She is undisputed in the light middleweight class, a claim she previously held in the middleweight category.

The American also unified the WBC and IBF super middleweight titles.

Katie Taylor is a history-making boxer from Ireland.

She won lightweight gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games and won the International Boxing Association's World Championships on five occasions.

Taylor also won gold at the European Games in Baku in 2015 and at the European Championships six times.

She has now embarked on a phenomenal professional career which has seen her crowned as the undisputed lightweight world champion.

In April 2022, she defeated Puerto Rico's Amanda Serrano in a much-hyped bout in New York City by split decision.

The pair were the first women to headline the iconic Madison Square Garden venue with the fight dubbed "the biggest women's match of all time".

Taylor defended all of her lightweight titles against Serrano, herself a former seven-division world champion.

Mary Kom is one of the most dominant women's boxers of all time.

The Indian is the only female fighter to win the International Boxing Association's World Championships six times, while she is the only person to win a medal at eight different editions of the event, male or female.

Known as "Magnificent Mary", Kom has boxed at pinweight, light flyweight and flyweight.

She won an Olympic bronze medal at London 2012 and Commonwealth Games gold at Gold Coast 2018.

Kom has also won five Asian titles and is known for her stamina and punching power.

Her backstory is remarkable as she came from a life of poverty in India, with a feature film about the mother of four already made.

Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk is a boxer who has enjoyed domination in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions.

At cruiserweight, he won the WBO world title in September 2016 after defeating Krzysztof Głowacki.

He then unified the pro division by winning the World Boxing Super Series, which saw him come through a quarter-final with Marco Huck, a semi-final with Mairis Briedis and a final with Murat Gassiev.

Usyk thus became the first cruiserweight to hold all four major world titles as he added the WBC, WBA and IBF belts.

In September 2021, Usyk beat Britain's London 2012 super heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua to win the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBA heavyweight world titles.

He defeated Joshua again in a re-match in Saudi Arabia in August 2022.

His scraps with Joshua saw two Olympic champions from London collide as Usyk won the heavyweight gold medal in 2012.

In his amateur days he also won at the IBA World Championships in 2011, at heavyweight, and at the European Championships in 2008 at light heavyweight.

In February 2022, Usyk joined Ukraine's territorial defense forces after the country was invaded by Russia, before leaving to prepare for his first fight with Joshua.

France's Estelle Mossely enjoyed a 2016 to remember in the ring.

The lightweight boxer first tasted success at the AIBA World Championships in Astana in Kazakhstan after beating Anastasiia Beliakova of Russia in the final for gold.

Mossely also got the better of Ireland's London 2012 Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion Katie Taylor in the semi-finals.

At the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mossely then added lightweight gold thanks to victory over Yin Junhua of China in the final.

She has since moved into the professional ranks where she remains undefeated.

In 2019, Mossely defeated Sweden's Lucy Wildheart to win the IBO lightweight world title.

She has since made four successful defences of the belt.

German boxer Henry Maske is one of the country's most popular sporting figures and was a force in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions.

He won middleweight gold at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games alongside three amateur European titles.

In his amateur career Maske also won gold at the World Championships at light heavyweight in 1989, as well as a middleweight silver in 1986.

Maske fought professionally for the first time in 1990 and won the IBF light heavyweight title in 1993 with a unanimous decision win over Charles Williams of the United States.

He made 10 successful title defences before defeat to Virgil Hill of the US in 1996 when the WBA light heavyweight title was also on the line.

This was the only defeat of Maske's career and his last fight for 11 years.

The German returned for one last contest in 2007 when he defeated Hill in Munich to avenge his earlier loss.

Teófilo Stevenson is a triple Olympic champion boxer from Cuba and one of the sport's greats.

He won the heavyweight gold medal at Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980.

Stevenson also won three golds at the amateur World Championships, in 1974, 1978 and 1986.

In 1987, he was honoured with the Olympic Order.

The Cuban was also a double Pan American Games champion.

Zou Shiming is China's most successful amateur boxer of all time.

He won Olympic gold in the light flyweight division on home soil at Beijing 2008 and then defended his title four years later at London 2012.

At Athens 2004, Zou won a bronze medal.

Success also came at the World Championships as he won gold in 2005, 2007 and 2011 and silver in 2003.

He won the Asian Games gold medal in both 2006 and 2010.

As a professional, Zou held the WBO flyweight belt between 2016 and 2017.