Dillian Whyte, the hardest puncher of all time and the man who beat Muhammad Ali – here are some of the best heavyweights to never win a world title

Dillian Whyte will get a chance to win something that has eluded him throughout his career when he takes on Tyson Fury.

The two compete for the WBC heavyweight title and it has been a long journey to this point, having spent more than 1000 days as the number one contender.

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In the meantime, Whyte has put together one of the best CVs in the division, defeating a number of former world champions and title challengers, including Joseph Parker, Alexander Povetkin and Derek Chisora.

This makes Whyte arguably the best heavyweight of this era to have not won a world title, but he is not alone through boxing history.

Sam Langford

Arguably the best fighter on this list and the best to not win a world title, Langford's issues were not boxing politics related like Dillian Whyte's, but instead the colour of his skin.

Langford fought in a number of different weight classes from lightweight all the way up to heavyweight between 1902-1926, but he was not allowed to compete for the highest prize in boxing due the colour bar, which prevented black fighters from challenging for a world title.

He was rated as the second best puncher of all time by the Ring Magazine and described by boxing historian Kevin Smith as 'probably one of the top five greatest fighters we've ever had on the planet.'

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The 'Boston Bonecrusher' held the World Coloured Heavyweight Title and he fought and beat many of the best fighters of his era, amassing a record of 178-30-38, with 126 knockouts, before he was forced to retire due to blindness.

Ken Norton

This is a man who took on some of the best heavyweights of all time, including George Foreman, Earnie Shavers and Larry Holmes.

He is best known for his trilogy of fights with 'The Greatest', Muhammad Ali, winning the first fight by split decision in 1973, but losing the following two meetings.

He was technically the WBC world champion in 1978, as he was awarded the belt after the champion, Leon Spinks, chose to fight Ali rather than Norton who was the number one contender.

Norton never actually won the belt in the ring and in his first and only defence of the title, he lost to Larry Holmes by split decision.

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David Tua

An Olympic bronze medallist and knockout specialist, Tua was as explosive as it gets in the boxing ring.

He knocked out two former heavyweight world champions, John Ruiz and Michael Moorer, inside the first thirty seconds of the first round.

Tua also stopped Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev who both went on to win heavyweight world titles, but he only ever received one shot at the heavyweight crown when he took on unified champion Lennox Lewis in 2000 and was beaten by unanimous decision.

The Samoa native was never stopped in his professional career spanning 21-years from 1992-2003 and he retired with a record of 52-5-2, with 43 knockouts.

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Earnie Shavers

Known as arguably the hardest hitting heavyweight in boxing history with 68 KOs in his 74 wins, Shavers came agonisingly close to becoming a world champion, but it never materialised.

He took Muhammad Ali the distance in 1977, but was beaten on the scorecards, although Ali went on to praise Shavers' power after the fight saying: “Earnie hit me so hard, it shook my kinfolk back in Africa!”

A number of Shavers' opponents expressed a similar sentiment about his devastating knockout ability, with Randall Cobbs saying: “The first right he threw missed and landed on my shoulder. It felt like someone had dropped a bowling ball on my shoulder.”

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James Tillis, another opponent to feel the wrath of Shavers' power had a particularly vivid description after their clash in 1982.

“I was in the land of make-believe." he said. "I heard saxophones, trombones. I saw little blue rats, and they were all smoking cigars and drinking whisky.”

Shavers had a second shot at the world title after his loss to Ali, this time against Larry Holmes in 1979, but he was stopped in the 11th round.