Who are the most famous non-American fighters of all-time?

Duran
Lewis
Pacquiao
JCC (maybe?)

There's a few.

 

Schmeling
JCC
Tiger
Bonavena
Monzon
Duran
Arguello

 

Klit Bros are huge these days.
lennox lewis
calzaghe (not sure how big he is in USA)
hatton
Pacquiao
the mexican ring legends (chavez, barrerra, morales)
Trinidad & cotto

im sure there are more, but the old school ones werent that famous

edit: forgot to mention schmeling and duran

 

Gustav "Bubi" Scholz was huge in Germany in the 50s/60s. Very huge, not just a boxer but THE symbol of the economic miracle. Made movies, recorded albums and so on.

Henry Maske in the 90s was als also huge. He also was a symbol. The symbol of the reunification of Germany.

Both never were as big as Max Schmeling though. But in terms of popularity those three were the biggest German fighters.

Nowadays the Klitschkos are big here. 15-18 million German housholds watch every Klitschko fight. Abraham is also big, with about 12-13 million watchers every fight.

Duran in Panama and Chavez in Mexico are obvious ones. Hatton in England. Pac in the Filipines. Monzon was big in Europe and South America in the 70s.

 

For varios reasons I suggest Ingemar Johansson (for knocking out Floyd Patterson), Nino Benvenuti (three fights against Emile Griffith) and Henry Cooper (for knocking deown a young Cassius Clay)

Woller

 

Beat me to it!

 

Yeah Johansson was a pretty big deal back then...

 

Primo Carnera.
He might not be known now to the average sports fan, but I daresay to older generations he was.

 

Inside the United States, Duran was popular enough to obtain nationally televised commercial endorsements for products like Pepsi. Arguello was comparable in public recognition from the time he dethroned Escalera.

Danny Lopez was easily the most widely known non heavyweight American champion before the rise of the 1976 US Olympic team in the professional ranks. Therefore, he was the perfect titlist for Sal Sanchez to upset in order to attain the visibility he did. Sal's untimely death made national network news, just as Schmeling's did.

Primo was able to make a good living in professional wrestling after his boxing days were over, most of this in the States.

McLarnin certainly qualifies, born in Ireland, resided in Vancouver. Gavilan deserves mention.

We could be at this for hours.

 

Barbados Joe Walcott
Bob Fitzsimmons
Eder Jofre
Fighting Harada
Pancho Villa

Sam Langford and George Dixon if you're counting Canadians. Absolutely loads of Latinos, too many to mention.

 

The Klitschkos must be massive in Germany. I was talking to German guy a couple of years ago who was no huge boxing fan, but had a far better knowledge of the K's than anyone else I've met

Does ODLH count?

 

jimmy wilde

 

Koki Kameda.

Not because I felt like throwing the dude's name out for no apparent reason like it normally is, he actually fits this thread. His fights generate absolutely massive ratings in Japan.

 

WOW! This is actually a difficult question! First I have to wonder, do you mean how many non-american fighters are known by the average american sports fan or globally? 2nd I don't believe the average sports fan necesarilly has a good grip on boxing as a whole. There are very few AMERICAN names that transcend the sport and are actually known to the average sports fan:

Muhammad Ali
Sugar Ray Robbinson
Sugar Ray Leonard
Joe Louis
Mike Tyson
Oscar De La Hoya

To a lesser degree:
Joe Frazier
Marvin Hagler
Thomas Hearns
Evander Holyfield
Larry Holmes

Outside of the US names are probably as sparse:

Roberto Duran
Julio Ceasar Chavez
Macho Camacho

to a lesser degree:
Trinidad
Pac
Floyd
maybe Hatton

the only ones that pop in my head:

I have several friends/aquantinces that love sports, and very few have any knowledge at all of boxing, and if I tried to talk to them about:

Sweet pea, Ken Buchanan, Salvador sanchez, Alexis Arguello, lennox lewis, Nigel benn, azumah nelson, jeff fenech, Wilfredo Gomez etc...I doubt very many would recognize any of the names.

So as far as the average American sports fan goes I don't many boxer names resonate very much with them at all!