Top Female Boxers of All Time: The Greatest Women in Boxing

Ask ten boxing fans to name the greatest female fighter and you’ll get at least three different answers, and that’s the point. Women’s boxing didn’t have a real Olympic stage until 2012, so comparing eras means weighing amateur medals against professional belts, and a fighter who never lost against one who fought everyone available. The list below names the twelve women whose records, titles, and impact on the sport put them above the rest — not a summary of “what makes a great boxer,” but the actual ranked leaderboard with the record behind each name.

What Makes a Great Female Boxer?

Major sanctioning bodies barely recognized women’s boxing until the late 1990s, and it took until London 2012 for the Olympics to open the door. That timeline matters here: consistency, titles held across weight classes, unbeaten or near-unbeaten records, and measurable impact on the sport — bigger arenas, bigger paydays, more mainstream coverage — carry more weight than raw name recognition. Boxing’s scoring system and its 17 weight classes apply to the women’s ranks the same way they do the men’s, which is part of why cross-era, cross-division comparisons are genuinely difficult.

The Greatest Female Boxers, Ranked

Rank	Boxer	Country	Career	Signature Achievement
1	Claressa Shields	USA	2016–present (pro)	Undisputed champion in 3 weight classes; two-time Olympic gold (2012, 2016)
2	Katie Taylor	Ireland	2016–present (pro)	Undisputed lightweight and super-lightweight champion
3	Amanda Serrano	Puerto Rico	2009–present	World titles across seven weight classes; undisputed featherweight
4	Laila Ali	USA	1999–2007	Retired 24-0; unified super middleweight and light heavyweight titles
5	Cecilia Braekhus	Norway	2007–2023	Eight-year undisputed welterweight reign, all four major belts at once
6	Lucia Rijker	Netherlands	1996–2004	Retired 17-0; unbeaten in both boxing and kickboxing careers
7	Christy Martin	USA	1989–2012	Pioneer of mainstream women’s boxing; first woman inducted into the IBHOF (2021)
8	Regina Halmich	Germany	1994–2007	54-1-1; 12-year WIBF flyweight title reign
9	Nicola Adams	Great Britain	2001–2019	Two-time Olympic flyweight gold (2012, 2016); pro WBO title
10	Mary Kom	India	2000–2023 (amateur)	Six-time World Amateur Champion; Olympic bronze at London 2012
11	Holly Holm	USA	2002–2013 (boxing)	Multi-division world champion before her MMA crossover
12	Gabriela Fundora	USA	2021–present	Undisputed flyweight champion, unbeaten as of 2026

1. Claressa Shields

Shields won Olympic gold at London 2012 as a teenager, then did it again at Rio 2016 — the first American boxer of either gender to win back-to-back Olympic golds. She turned professional afterward and became undisputed champion in three weight classes, then moved up to add heavyweight titles in 2025. No other female boxer has matched that combination: dominating the amateur ranks and then stacking undisputed titles across divisions as a pro. As of 2026, she is the most frequently named number-one on active pound-for-pound lists.

2. Katie Taylor

Taylor built her reputation in the amateur ranks first, collecting multiple World Amateur Championship golds before adding Olympic gold at London 2012. As a pro she became undisputed at lightweight and later super-lightweight. Her trilogy with Amanda Serrano, which headlined Madison Square Garden and a later stadium card, produced some of the most talked-about fights in the sport’s history and is widely credited with proving women’s boxing could sell arenas on its own.

3. Amanda Serrano

Serrano has won world titles across seven weight classes, a record few boxers of either gender approach, and became the undisputed featherweight champion. Her rivalry with Katie Taylor helped push women’s boxing into main-event, pay-per-view territory, and her volume-punching style made her one of the most exciting fighters of her era. She remains active and ranked among the sport’s top pound-for-pound fighters as of 2026.

4. Laila Ali

Muhammad Ali’s daughter retired undefeated at 24-0 after winning world titles at super middleweight and light heavyweight. She fought in an era with limited television coverage and few competitive platforms for women, yet still put together a dominant record and pulled real mainstream attention toward the sport, including several high-profile fights broadcast on network television.

5. Cecilia Braekhus

Braekhus held all four major welterweight world titles at the same time for roughly eight years — something few boxers of either gender have pulled off. Her game was built on technical precision and ring IQ rather than power, and it made her the longest-reigning undisputed female champion of the four-belt era before she was finally dethroned in 2020.

6. Lucia Rijker

Rijker is the fighter many historians and trainers still call the greatest female boxer of all time on pure dominance, even though she’s less famous to casual fans than Ali or Taylor. The Dutch fighter retired with a perfect 17-0 professional boxing record and was also unbeaten across a long kickboxing career, earning the nickname “The Most Dangerous Woman in the World.” She held the WIBF super lightweight title and never lost to anyone she faced in either sport — a crossover résumé that connects boxing to combat sports like kickboxing.

7. Christy Martin

Martin fought from 1989 to 2012 and did more than almost anyone to bring women’s boxing to a mainstream American audience, headlining undercards on Mike Tyson pay-per-views in the 1990s when few networks would touch the women’s game. In 2021 she became the first woman ever inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, a recognition of her role in building an audience for everyone who came after her.

8. Regina Halmich

Halmich held the WIBF flyweight title for roughly 12 years and finished her career 54-1-1, filling arenas in Germany at a time when women’s boxing struggled to draw a crowd anywhere else in the world. Her fights were regularly among the highest-rated sporting broadcasts on German television, a commercial impact rivaled by few other female boxers of her generation.

9. Nicola Adams

Adams won flyweight Olympic gold at both London 2012 and Rio 2016, becoming the first female boxer to win an Olympic title and then the first to successfully defend it. She later turned pro and picked up the WBO flyweight belt before retiring in 2019. Her run did a lot to grow amateur boxing’s popularity back home in the UK.

10. Mary Kom

Kom is the most decorated women’s amateur boxer on record, with six World Amateur Boxing Championship titles across a career spanning more than two decades, plus a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics. In India, she’s less a sports figure than a genuine cultural icon, and her longevity at the elite amateur level remains unmatched.

11. Holly Holm

Before she became famous for knocking out Ronda Rousey in the UFC, Holm was already a decorated professional boxer, winning world titles across multiple divisions including super lightweight and welterweight. Her boxing footwork and output — the same tools that later stunned the MMA world — made her one of the more technically complete female fighters of the 2000s.

12. Gabriela Fundora

Fundora is the newest name on this list and the one most likely to climb it further. As of 2026 she holds the undisputed flyweight championship with an unbeaten professional record, part of a wave of younger fighters — alongside boxers like Mikaela Mayer and Lauren Price — carrying women’s boxing’s commercial momentum forward after the Taylor-Serrano era. Her rise is worth tracking alongside boxing’s other active undefeated fighters.

How We Ranked Them

This list weighs four things: titles actually held (undisputed status counts more than a single belt), win-loss record and whether a fighter retired unbeaten, head-to-head quality of opposition, and measurable impact on the sport — arena size, broadcast reach, and whether a fighter’s fights moved the needle commercially. Shields, Taylor, and Serrano lead on the combination of undisputed status and modern-era opposition; Rijker and Ali lead on pure unbeaten dominance; Martin and Halmich earn their spots for building the audience the current generation fights in front of. For the men’s side of this debate, see our list of the greatest boxers of all time, and for the money side of the sport, the richest boxers in the world.