Category profile
- Dominance
- 92
- Peak
- 93
- Longevity
- 88
- Honours
- 92
- Statistics
- 92
Career timeline · Form index per season
| Season | Form index per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 1935 | 13 | |
| 1936 | 8 | |
| 1937 | 5 | |
| 1938 | 4 | |
| 1939 | 4 | |
| 1940 | 5 | |
| 1941 | 7 | |
| 1942 | 2 | |
| 1943 | 1 | |
| 1944 | 2 | |
| 1945 | 3 | |
| 1946 | 2 | |
| 1947 | 1 | |
| 1948 | 1 |
Data sources
- BoxRec
- The Ring
- Olympedia
Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method
Why Joe Louis ranks #5 in Boxing
Joe Louis ranks 5th among Boxing athletes on GOAT Rank and 53rd of 1063 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 91.4 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 92, Peak 93, Longevity 88, Honours 92, Statistics 92. Those categories are normalised against the full Boxing reference universe of 267 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.
The record covers 1934–1951 with 14 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 1935, which sets the Peak component at 93. Peak is the defining strength of the profile at 93 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes world titles 1, title defences 25, career wins 66, knockouts 52.
Immediately ahead sits Roberto Durán on 90.3, a gap of -1.1 points. Directly behind is Floyd Mayweather Jr. on 90.7. The position moves whenever the verified record moves: new titles, new seasons or a corrected source all feed straight back into the same formula, and every change is dated on this profile.
Joe Louis GOAT Score explained
- Dominance92/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Louis stood above the field while competing. Scored 92/100 against the full Boxing cohort.
- Peak93/100 · weight 20%
- Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 1935. Scored 93/100.
- Longevity88/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 17 years of competition and 14 recorded seasons. Scored 88/100.
- Honours92/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 92/100.
- Statistics92/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 92/100.
Top Louis comparisons
Joe Louis — frequently asked
- Is Joe Louis the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Joe Louis ranks 5th in Boxing with a GOAT Score of 91.4, behind Sugar Ray Robinson on 94.3.
- What is Joe Louis's GOAT Score?
- 91.4 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 92 (25%), Peak 93 (20%), Longevity 88 (20%), Honours 92 (20%), Statistics 92 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Joe Louis rank all time?
- 53rd of 1063 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 5th within Boxing.
- Joe Louis vs Roberto Durán: who ranks higher?
- Joe Louis, on 91.4 against Roberto Durán's 90.3 — a margin of 1.1 points.