The importance of the entrance to the ring is often understated in boxing circles but the fight can often be won and lost in that short walk from the curtain to the ropes.
You can instill fear into your opponent with an underplayed yet intimidating walkout or come out dancing to let your opponent know that you have no fear of them.
ICYMI: Burger King paid for king to walk in with Floyd Mayweather. Estimated to cost $1M+ pic.twitter.com/hCj6TCEC42
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 4, 2015
Nowadays, they’re being used more and more as a promotional tool with Floyd Mayweather reportedly earning $1 million for walking to the ring with Burger King while Manny Pacquiao had Jimmy Kimmel walk out with him and the talk show host photobombed a selfie as part of a Samsung deal.
https://youtu.be/s1cK5lPCN88
The bizarre entrances made us think what the best walkout of all time was and, perhaps more interestingly, what was the worst.
Five of the worst
5. Floyd Mayweather v Arturo Gatti – Oh you’re a king? We get it. And we hate it.
4.Prince Naseem Hamed v Vuyani Bungu – It’s been 15 years since Prince Naseem made his way to the ring on a magic carpet and we’ve yet to come around to the idea.
https://youtu.be/pYxAfGfNg14
3. Roy Jones Jr v Clinton Woods – Not only was Roy Jones Jr’s entrance about five minutes too long but the flashiness and rapping your own walkout does nothing for us. The “Britney Spears” microphone should be nowhere near a boxing ring.
2. Prince Naseem Hamed v Wayne McCullough – We like boxing. We like Michael Jackson. But never the twain ought meet.
1. Usman Ahmed v Ashley Sexton – There are no words.
Five of the best
5. Mike Tyson v Frans Botha – After 18 months away from the ring, Iron Mike returned to face South Africa’s Francois Botha and the DMX song, combined with Tyson’s steely gaze was enough to terrify absoutely anyone in his path.
https://youtu.be/aTTAB4V3-Zw
4. Floyd Mayweather v Phillip Ndou – Mayweather features on both lists because we love the confidence of this walkout to 50 Cent’s Many Men but just can’t bring ourselves to like the whole “dress up like a king” thing above.
https://youtu.be/YlFTTY7nl9Q
3. Ricky Hatton v Jose Luis Castillo – This bad boy treads the tightrope between awesome and awful. On the one hand, we love the air raid sirens leading into Blue Moon but, on the other, what’s the story with sombrero kid?
https://youtu.be/X3h2kq4ObLk
2. Wladimir Klitschko v Eddie Chambers – The Klitschko’s get an awful lot of grief for their relatively boring fight style but the younger fighter sure knows how to get the goosebumps going with an incredibly extravagant entrance.
1. Mike Tyson v Michael Spinks – The baddest man on the planet still haunts our dreams after this walkout in 1988 which featured just a warbled hum, no robe and the most intense stare we’ve ever seen.
