Best Boxing Cameos In WWE

A look at the best cameos from the world of boxing into the world of WWE! Did your favorite make the list?

To some degree, the disciplines of boxing and wrestling are very different indeed.

One is billed as sports entertainment, a show of athleticism and skills mixed with scripts, storylines and predetermined outcomes. The other is more authentic, with genuine competition at its very heart. Whilst those differences ensure the two sports appeal to very different markets, they also come together effectively, too.

Boxers have crossed into the World Wrestling Federation since the very earliest days of WrestleMania. Boxers do have an element of showmanship about them, selling a fight with press conferences and trash-talking, but the WWE take it one stage further. For the very best showmen in boxing, it is a natural progression.

So, which boxers made the biggest splash in the WWE? We have selected four whose appearances added incredible value to the shows and storylines they were involved in.

Tyson Fury

The most recent example of a high-profile boxer coming into the WWE saw current WBC Heavyweight Champions Tyson Fury brawling with Braun Strowman. It began, as is almost customary, with Fury being ringside at a bout, and Strowman taunting him, eventually launching Dolph Ziggler into the Gypsy King’s direction. Fury jumped the rail and that began a feud that culminated in a showdown at WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia. Whilst Fury’s presence helped the WWE viewing figures, it was also clever marketing by his team ahead of his pay-per-view title bout with Deontay Wilder, which he won.

Mike Tyson

The self-styled ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ was a natural fit for the WWE, but he was made to wait despite being scheduled to appear at WWE Main Event III in 1990. Instead, he surprisingly lost to Buster Douglas in the boxing ring, which saw him replaced in the WWE, too. His profile remained high and he still drew fans in the boxing ring, which set him on a collision course with the WWE. A post on the biggest PPV fights of all time by Bwin explains how Tyson’s bout with Evander Holyfield was a huge pay-per-view draw, and his rivalries with Frank Bruno and Lennox Lewis kept him in the public eye globally. In 1998, with his infamy at its height, he cost the WWE around $3.5m for a handful of appearances. It helped boost the flagging promotion and his most prominent appearance came at WrestleMania 14 where he helped get Stone Cold Steve Austin over as a babyface against Shawn Michaels, whom he knocked out with a right hook.

Evander Holyfield

Holyfield’s rivalry with Tyson was one of the biggest stories of the nineties in terms of boxing, and after winning twice, he was an obvious choice for a WWE appearance. Another key driver was his admiration for wrestlers, with Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair cited as two of his favorites. He arrived in the promotion in 2007, replacing MVP to go head-to-head with Matt Hardy in a boxing match, which he won, but not before also knocking out MVP.

Floyd Mayweather

Mayweather first appeared ringside at No Way Out in 2008, when he leapt to the defense of Ray Mysterio as the Big Show prepared to slam him in an unprovoked assault. Mayweather leapt the hoardings and entered the ring, before legitimately breaking Big Show’s nose before departing. It led to a showdown between the two at WrestleMania 24, where The Money knocked The Giant out with the help of some brass knuckles from his entourage. It was classic WWE scripting and storytelling using some of the biggest characters in the world, literally and metaphorically.