What is Jimmy Ellis's record?

40–12–1 in boxing. That is the aggregate stated in the English Wikipedia infobox; the results table on the same article lists 57 bouts individually.

Does a no contest change a record here?

No. A no contest is not a win, a loss or a draw, and it is never folded into one. It is counted and printed separately, so a 20–0 record with two no contests is shown as exactly that rather than as 22–0 or as 20–0 with the no contests dropped. The same applies to a bout overturned after the fact where the source records the change.

What happens when sources disagree about a fight?

This site publishes one source — the fighter's English Wikipedia article, read on the date printed under every table — and it does not silently reconcile that against anyone else's database. Where the article's own infobox total and its own results table disagree, both are shown and the page says which one each figure came from. Nothing is averaged, and no field is filled in from a second source to make a total balance.

Jimmy Ellis — record, reach and career in context

Boxing record

40–12–1

Jimmy Ellis has a reach of 76″ against a height of 73″ — a reach advantage of +4.1%, above average for heavyweight boxing and the 56th percentile of the 317 compared here.

WON ABOVE·LOST BELOW BAR = STOPPAGE·BROKEN BAR = SUBMISSION·TICK = DECISION 1961–1982

SOURCE·Jimmy Ellis (boxer) — English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)·derived figures computed here·REVIEWED 2026-07-29

How this record is compiled

Measurements come from the fighter's English Wikipedia infobox; the bout list is parsed from the results table on the same article, read on 2026-07-29. Boxing tables are read by header name and MMA records by the fixed column order of the MMA record template — two different parsers, because reading MMA rows as a boxing table returns a fighter's boxing record in place of their real one.
A bout enters the ledger with whatever fields the source states: result, opponent, method, round, year. Any field the source leaves empty stays empty here. A date that cannot be established is left blank rather than inferred, and the bout is still counted.
A no contest is counted and printed as a no contest. It is never folded into the wins, the losses or the draws, and it never disappears to make a total balance.
Where the article's infobox total disagrees with its own results table, both figures are published and each is labelled with where it came from. Nothing is averaged and nothing is reconciled against a second database.
Percentiles rank this fighter among the 317 heavyweight boxing fighters in the dataset — the most specific group of at least 30 that this fighter belongs to.

reach advantage = (reach − height) ÷ height × 100

Sources, exclusions and known limits →

Bout record

Every bout the article's own results table lists, in order. A dash is a field the source leaves empty — it is not a zero and it is not a guess.

Bout-by-bout recordAUG 2026
Year	Result	Opponent	Method	Rd
1982	?	Muhammad Ali	—	—
1980	?	Muhammad Ali	—	5
1979	?	Muhammad Ali	—	5
1975	W	Carl Baker	KO/TKO	1
1975	L	Joe Frazier	KO/TKO	9
1974	L	Joe Bugner	Decision	10
1974	L	Ron Lyle	Decision	12
1974	D	Larry Middleton	Draw	10
1973	L	Boone Kirkman	Decision	10
1973	W	Al Jones	KO/TKO	7
1973	L	Earnie Shavers	KO/TKO	1
1973	W	Rico Brooks	KO/TKO	5
1973	W	Joe Tiger Harris	KO/TKO	2
1973	W	Charlie Harris	KO/TKO	1
1973	W	Bob Felstein	KO/TKO	2
1972	W	Harold Carter	KO/TKO	7
1972	W	Ollie Wilson	KO/TKO	6
1972	W	Rico Brooks	KO/TKO	2
1972	W	Dick Gosha	KO/TKO	6
1971	L	Muhammad Ali	KO/TKO	12
1971	W	George Chuvalo	Decision	10
1971	W	Tony Doyle	KO/TKO	10
1970	W	Roberto Davila	KO/TKO	7
1970	L	Joe Frazier	KO/TKO	4
1968	W	Floyd Patterson	Decision	15
1968	W	Jerry Quarry	Decision	15
1967	W	Oscar Bonavena	Decision	12
1967	W	Leotis Martin	KO/TKO	9
1967	W	Johnny Persol	KO/TKO	1
1966	W	Tommy Sims	KO/TKO	1
1966	W	Eddie Dembry	KO/TKO	1
1966	W	Billy Daniels	Decision	6
1966	W	Leweni Waqa	KO/TKO	1
1966	W	Hubert Hilton	Decision	8
1965	W	Chuck Leslie	Decision	10
1965	W	Joe Blackwood	KO/TKO	1
1965	?	Muhammad Ali	—	4
1964	L	George Benton	Decision	10
1964	L	Don Fullmer	Decision	10
1964	W	Joe Spencer	KO/TKO	1
1964	L	Rubin Carter	Decision	10
1963	W	Luis Gutierrez	Decision	10
1963	W	Johnny Halafihi	KO/TKO	1
1962	W	LeRoy Green	Decision	10
1962	L	Henry Hank	Decision	10
1962	W	Charlie Glover	—	4
1962	W	Sammy Poe	Decision	4
1962	W	Rudolph Bent	KO/TKO	2
1962	W	Holley Mims	Decision	10
1962	W	Johnny Alford	Decision	6
1962	W	Rory Calhoun	—	1
1961	L	Holley Mims	Decision	10
1961	W	Clarence Riley	—	1
1961	W	Wilf Greaves	—	10
1961	W	Johnny Morris	—	6
1961	W	Gene Leslie	—	8
1961	W	Arley Seifer	—	3

18 of these opponents have their own page here.

SOURCE·Jimmy Ellis (boxer) — English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)·derived figures computed here·REVIEWED 2026-07-29

Reach in context

Reach advantage

+4.1%

76″ reach on a 73″ frame

lowestmedianhighest

Compared against 317 heavyweight boxing fighters. Median 3.99%.

-2.8%heavyweight boxing reach advantage12%

Measurements
Reach	76″ (193 cm)	32nd pct
Height	73″ (185.4 cm)	27th pct
Stance	Orthodox
Division	Heavyweight Boxing
Most active decade	1960s — 33 of 57 dated bouts
Country	United States

Record

Boxing record

40–12

53 bouts on record

Finish rate

60%

of wins ended inside the distance — heavyweight boxing median 68%, 34th percentile

By knockout 60%
By decision 40%

The career, bout by bout

57 recorded bouts from 1961 to 1982. Every incumbent shows this as a table you have to read; here it is as a shape you can see.

winlossdraw / NC1961–1982

Career span

22y

1961–1982

Longest unbeaten run

13

without a loss — draws do not break it

Busiest year

1962

8 bouts

Recorded bouts

57

57 with a date

Closest in build

heavyweight boxing fighters with the nearest reach advantage.

Standing questions

What this record does and does not say

What is Jimmy Ellis's record?: 40–12–1 in boxing. That is the aggregate stated in the English Wikipedia infobox; the results table on the same article lists 57 bouts individually.
Does a no contest change a record here?: No. A no contest is not a win, a loss or a draw, and it is never folded into one. It is counted and printed separately, so a 20–0 record with two no contests is shown as exactly that rather than as 22–0 or as 20–0 with the no contests dropped. The same applies to a bout overturned after the fact where the source records the change.
What happens when sources disagree about a fight?: This site publishes one source — the fighter's English Wikipedia article, read on the date printed under every table — and it does not silently reconcile that against anyone else's database. Where the article's own infobox total and its own results table disagree, both are shown and the page says which one each figure came from. Nothing is averaged, and no field is filled in from a second source to make a total balance.

Cross-references

Heavyweight boxing

The 605 heavyweight boxing fighters this record is ranked against, and the distribution Ellis sits inside.

605 FIGHTERS 1960s boxing

33 of these bouts fall in the 1960s. This is what the rest of that decade's records look like.

72 FIGHTERS Jimmy Ellis vs Joe Frazier

A bout both records confirm — set out side by side, with every opponent the two men have in common.

1970 Longest unbeaten runs

Jimmy Ellis went 13 without a loss. This is where that sits against every run on the site.

LEADERBOARD