Key points:
- Larry Holmes entered his 1985 fight with Michael Spinks at 48-0, one win from matching Rocky Marciano’s 49-0
- Julio César Chávez went 87-0-1 before losing to Frankie Randall in 1994, ending one of the sport’s most celebrated unbeaten runs
- Sugar Ray Robinson rebuilt a 91-fight unbeaten streak after his first career loss, only for Randy Turpin to end it in London in 1951
- Roberto Duran’s first loss came against Esteban de Jesús in 1972, snapping a 31-fight unbeaten run to open his career
Getting close to history and actually making it are two different things. These five got agonisingly near before somebody else wrote the final chapter for them.
5. Roberto Duran
Thirty-one straight to open his career, the kind of start that had people talking about him as an all-time great before he’d even hit his physical peak. Esteban de Jesús ended it in 1972 – and ‘Hands of Stone’ spent the rest of his career avenging that loss twice over, which tells you plenty about how much it stung.
4. Packey McFarland
Ninety-seven fights unbeaten to close out his career, only ever beaten by three men across the whole run. Old-school, criminally underrated, and exactly the kind of chin we’ve written about before on this site – the man simply never went down.
3. Sugar Ray Robinson
Robinson’s first loss came against Jake LaMotta in 1943. What came after was the real story – 91 fights unbeaten, welterweight and middleweight titles collected along the way, before Randy Turpin beat him in London in 1951. Robinson got his revenge two months later, stopping Turpin in ten. Didn’t change what happened the first time round.
2. Julio César Chávez
Eighty-seven straight wins, then a draw with Pernell Whitaker that plenty of ringside observers still think Chávez actually lost. Two fights later, Frankie Randall took him apart by split decision in January 1994, at 89-0-1. Chávez won the rematch four months on. The unbeaten run, though, was gone for good.
1. Larry Holmes
The clearest case there is. Holmes walked into the Riviera on September 21, 1985, at 48-0 – one win from matching Rocky Marciano’s untouched 49-0. Michael Spinks took it off him on all three cards. Holmes got a rematch the following April and lost that one too, on a split decision, closing the book on the chase for good.