Who are most dominant athletes in the world of sport at the moment? It’s currently a good bar topic, so here are the top five.
Individual sports are the easiest contests to determine supreme athletes, so most of the names on this list are forging dominant careers solo.
Ronda Rousey – mixed martial arts
Rousey made her mixed martial arts debut as an amateur on August 6, 2010. She defeated Hayden Muñoz by submission due to an armbar in just 23 seconds.
It was the start of a rapid rise to the top. In 12 professional fights she has won them all (11 in the first round) and spent a little over 13 minutes in the cage.
The first woman to earn a medal in Judo at the Olympic Games for the US is the highest profile and paid woman in her sport. She is the first and current UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion.
Floyd Mayweather Jr – boxing
Mayweather topped the Forbes and Sports Illustrated lists of the 50 highest-paid athletes of 2012 and 2013, and the Forbes list again in 2014.
He has a faultless record of 49-0 and is the most high-profile and dominant figure in the sport of boxing. He is a five-division world champion, having won 12 world titles and the lineal championship in four different weight classes.
In 2007 Mayweather founded Mayweather Promotions, his own boxing promotional firm after defecting from Bob Arum’s Top Rank.
When he fought Manny Pacquiao this year the pay-per-view purchases reached 4.4 million and made $410 million in revenue, the highest grossing fight in history ahead of his own record achieved in 2013. Mayweather even decided the size of the ring against Pacquiao.
Eric Bond and Hamish Murray – rowing
Rowing doesn’t enjoy the highest profile on this list, but Bond and Murray are astounding. They have won 61 races in a row as a coxless pair, including six consecutive world gold medals, the last two in world best times.
In 2012 they won the gold medal in London smashing the world record by six seconds.
Bond and Murray have been named in New Zealand’s team of the year twice and won the Halberg award – New Zealand’s highest sporting honour – for their achievements.
Usain Bolt – athletics
The fastest man on the planet, Bolt is the first man to hold both the 100m and 200m world records since fully automatic time measurements became mandatory in 1977.
He is the first man to win six Olympic gold medals in sprinting, and is an eleven-time world champion. He was the first to achieve a ‘double double’ by winning the 100m and 200m titles at consecutive Olympics (2008 and 2012).
Despite only three races in 2015, he successfully completed his third 100-200 double at the World Championships in China recently.
Bolt is one of only nine athletes to win World titles at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event. He holds the world records for the 100m, 150m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
Serena Williams – Tennis
Though she didn’t complete the Grand Slam, Williams has won seven out of the last eight major titles and 53 out of 56 matches this year.
She has a 21-4 record in Grand Slam finals and her excellence helped women earn equal pay in all major tournaments. She has won 69 singles titles, scored 164 victories over top 10 players and been seeded number one at every Grand Slam since 2013 and 19 times in her career.
Williams is the current Olympic champion and with sister Venus has completed a Grand Slam of the doubles majors.
The artist formerly known as Punter
Guest
Nor Messi or Ronaldo!!!!
smell the fear
Guest
i will have some of your stuff Johnno, it must be really strong
Johnno
Guest
cough cough Sideline Comms GlenMaxwell has been just about the most dominant ODI cricketer the last 12-18 months, and has amongst the best ODI stats ever. Klitschko a bit harsh there. GGG has dominated, not his fault he's that good, you can only fight what's in front of you, and some have been good fighters. Slater is all time great but done nothing in ages. Lebron I noticed you didn't comment on
Sideline Comm.
Guest
I might give you Klitschko, but GGG, come off it. He hasn't even really been tested yet. I like him but he's no where near a great yet. Even Klitshko has only dominated an unusually weak period of heavyweights. And the rest must be a joke. Maxwell? Really? They are good sportspeople but not on the level of the list above. My contribution would be Kelly Slater. Completely dominated surfing for years.
Andy
Guest
and you would be wrong, sprinting is a huge sport. and a great thing about sprinting when looking at who is the best ever is that you run against a constant (the clock) as opposed to having to compete against people who may or may not be awesome. most sports you can only be better than people you play against but with sprinting we can safely say that the fastest man ever is bolt.
Pete
Guest
I would of thought taking sprinting seriously as a sport wouldn't be that big either. I'm sure many of the (potentially) fastest men in history have never even set foot on a running track.
Johnno
Guest
Wladimir Klitschko and Genady Golovkin 2 boxers, surley have to come into calculations too to be added to this list. Shot puuter Valerie Adams is quite dominant too. Messi and Rondaldo as well. Lebron of course. His finals series in an injured clevland side was awesome his stats. Glen Maxwell in ODI'S is pretty damn dominant.
Mark
Guest
I totally agree that Serena is dominant. But if major titles = the 4 grand slam tournaments each year, then she has won 4 (not 7) of the past 8. The winners of the last 8 are (in order) Li, Sharapova, Kvitova, Serena, Serena, Serena, Serena, Pennetta.
SM
Guest
The depth of women's MMA is simply not there, so assessing Rousey's dominance in respect to athletes in other sports cannot be done at this point. I think it was Chael Sonnen who said she's come about 20 years too early, and I have to agree with that.
peeeko
Roar Guru
one of the great sports arguments. for me not only how superior an athlete is to their rivals is the number of people that play the sport. Usain is a great example of this, whilst agreeing Rousey is a great athlete, how many women in the world have taken up MMA as compared to running. same goes for the rowers, its a first world sport with a very small competitor base