BoxRec

BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing.

The objective of the site is to document every professional boxer and boxing match from the instigation of the Queensberry Rules up to the present times. BoxRec publishes ratings for all active boxers and all time ratings. Since 2012 the site has hosted Barry Hugman's History of World Championship Boxing.

Foundation

The site was founded by John Sheppard, an Englishman and former systems analyst for the National Coal Board. Sheppard had never attended a boxing bout until 1995 when he attended a "Prince" Naseem Hamed fight with Hamed's older brothers Riath and Nabeel. Sheppard had considered boxing to be a "barbaric and degrading" spectacle, stating "I sat there watching people punch each other in the head, wondering why they were doing it.....I was sprayed with blood, getting more and more miserable." However, Sheppard later explained, "[D]uring Naseem's fight, something clicked in my head. The subtlety of what he was doing, the genius of it all, became obvious to me. It wasn't a disgusting spectacle anymore. It was art, and I found myself cheering."