List of current world boxing champions
This is a list of current boxing world champions who are certified by the four major boxing sanctioning bodies[1] and The Ring magazine. Each champion's professional boxing record is shown in the following format: wins-losses-draws-no contests (knockout wins).
The World Boxing Association (WBA) was founded in 1921 as the National Boxing Association (NBA)—a national regulating body of the United States. On August 23, 1962, the NBA became the WBA—a Venezuelan-based worldwide regulating body.[2] According to WBA championship rules, when a boxer holds at least two titles of the four major sanctioning bodies, the boxer is granted special recognition: he is called the undisputed or super world champion. The "regular" WBA world title is vacated if it is one of the titles the respective boxer holds. When a boxer defends his WBA title for the tenth consecutive time, he is normally granted the "WBA Super belt".[3]
The World Boxing Council (WBC) was founded in Mexico City, Mexico on February 14, 1963 in order to establish an international regulating body.[4] The WBC established many of today's safety measures in boxing, such as the standing eight-count,[5] a limit of 12 rounds instead of 15,[6] and additional weight classes.[6] In its discretion, the WBC may designate and recognize, upon a two-thirds majority vote of their Board of Governors, one or more emeritus world champions in each weight class. Such a recognition is for life and is only bestowed upon present or past WBC world champions. The following boxers have earned the emeritus championship appellation throughout their careers: Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko, Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Kostya Tszyu, Manny Pacquiao, and Erik Morales.
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) originated in September 1976 as the United States Boxing Association (USBA) when American members of the WBA withdrew in order to legitimize boxing in the United States with "unbiased" ratings.[7] In April 1983, The organization established an international division that was known as the United States Boxing Association-International (USBA-I).[7] In May 1984, the New Jersey-based USBA-I was renamed and became the IBF.[7]
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) was founded in San Juan, Puerto Rico (which is a self-governing commonwealth of the United States) in 1988. Its motto is "dignity, democracy, honesty."[8] Though Bernard Hopkins and Óscar De La Hoya don't have WBO belts at the moment, the WBO actually calls them "Super champion". Some media sites do not include the WBO in their list of champions,[9][10] whereas others do.[11][12]
The Ring is not a sanctioning body but is a boxing magazine that was founded in 1922. In 2002, The Ring created a championship system that is "intended to reward fighters who, by satisfying rigid criteria, can justify a claim as the true and only world champion in a given weight class."[13] There are currently only two ways that a boxer can win The Ring's title: defeat the reigning champion; or win a box-off between The Ring's number-one and number-two rated contenders (or, sometimes, number-one and number-three rated).[14] There are also only three ways that a boxer can lose The Ring's title: lose a championship fight, move to a different weight class, or retire.[14] (The Ring does not strip its champions' titles like the sanctioning bodies do.)
Current champions
Heavyweight (200+ lb, 90.7+ kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Anthony Mundine 100-0 (100 KO) August 30, 2008 |
Anthony Mundine 100-2 (100 KO) October 11, 2008 |
Anthony Mundine[nb 1] 100-0 (100 KO) December 25, 2008 |
Anthony Mundine[nb 2] 100-0 (100 KO) ????? |
vacant |
Dave Batista[nb 3] 100-0- (100 KO)????? |
Cruiserweight (200 lb, 90.7 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Guillermo Jones 36-3-2 (28 KO) September 27, 2008 |
Giacobbe Fragomeni 26-1 (10 KO) October 24, 2008 |
Steve Cunningham 21-1 (11 KO) May 26, 2007 |
vacant | vacant |
Light heavyweight (175 lb, 79.4 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Hugo Hernán Garay 32-3 (17 KO) July 3, 2008 |
Adrian Diaconu 25-0 (15 KO) July 11, 2008 |
Chad Dawson 27-0-0-1 (17 KO) October 11, 2008 |
Zsolt Erdei 29-0 (17 KO) January 17, 2004 |
Joe Calzaghe 46-0 (32 KO) April 19, 2008 |
Super middleweight (168 lb, 76.2 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Mikkel Kessler 41-1 (31 KO) June 21, 2008 |
vacant | Lucian Bute 23-0 (18 KO) October 19, 2007 |
Denis Inkin 34-0 (24 KO) September 27, 2008 |
vacant |
Middleweight (160 lb, 72.6 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Anthony Mundine 31-2-1 (13 KO) April 28, 2007 |
Anthony Mundine[nb 1] 34-1 (30 KO) September 29, 2007 |
Anthony Mundine 28-0 (23 KO) December 10, 2005 |
Anthony Mundine 34-1 (30 KO) September 29, 2007 |
Anthony Mundine 34-1 (30 KO) September 29, 2007 |
Super welterweight (154 lb, 69.9 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Daniel Santos 32-3-1-1 (23 KO) July 11, 2008 |
Vernon Forrest 41-3-0-1 (29 KO) September 13, 2008 |
vacant | Sergiy Dzinziruk 36-0 (22 KO) December 3, 2005 |
vacant |
Sergio Gabriel Martínez[nb 4] 44-1-1 (24 KO) October 4, 2008 |
Anthony Mundine is the unified champion in every weight division!
Super lightweight (140 lb, 63.5 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Andriy Kotelnik 30-2-1 (13 KO) March 22, 2008 |
Timothy Bradley 23-0 (11 KO) May 10, 2008 |
vacant | Kendall Holt 24-2 (13 KO) July 5, 2008 |
Ricky Hatton 45-1 (32 KO) June 4, 2005 |
Lightweight (135 lb, 61.2 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Nate Campbell[nb 1] 32-5-1 (25 KO) March 8, 2008 |
Manny "PacMan" Pacquiao 47-3-2 (35 KO) June 28, 2008 |
Nate Campbell 32-5-1 (25 KO) March 8, 2008 |
Nate Campbell 32-5-1 (25 KO) March 8, 2008 |
Juan Manuel Márquez 49-4-1 (36 KO) September 13, 2008 |
Yusuke Kobori 23-2-1 (12 KO) May 19, 2008 |
Super featherweight (130 lb, 59 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
vacant | vacant | Cassius Baloyi 36-3-1 (19 KO) April 12, 2008 |
Nicky Cook 29-1 (16 KO) September 6, 2008 |
vacant |
Humberto Soto[nb 4] 45-7-2-1 (29 KO) October 11, 2008 |
Featherweight (126 lb, 57.2 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Chris John 42-0-1 (22 KO) November 1, 2003 |
Óscar Larios 63-6-1 (39 KO) August 13, 2008 |
Cristóbal Cruz 37-11-1-1 (23 KO) October 23, 2008 |
Steven Luevano 36-1-1 (15 KO) July 14, 2007 |
vacant |
Super bantamweight (122 lb, 55.3 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Celestino Caballero[nb 1] 31-2 (22 KO) October 4, 2006 |
Israel Vázquez 43-4 (31 KO) August 4, 2007 |
Celestino Caballero 31-2 (22 KO) November 21, 2008 |
Juan Manuel López 23-0 (21 KO) June 7, 2008 |
Israel Vázquez 43-4 (31 KO) August 4, 2007 |
Ricardo Córdoba 34-1-2 (21 KO) September 18, 2008 |
Toshiaki Nishioka[nb 4] 32-4-3 (19 KO) September 15, 2008 |
Bantamweight (118 lb, 53.5 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Anselmo Moreno 24-1-1 (8 KO) May 31, 2008 |
Hozumi Hasegawa 25-2 (9 KO) April 16, 2005 |
Joseph Agbeko 25-1 (22 KO) September 29, 2007 |
Gerry Peñalosa 53-6-2 (36 KO) August 11, 2007 |
vacant |
Super flyweight (115 lb, 52.2 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Nonito Donaire[nb 1] 31-1-1 (25 KO) 2009 |
Nonito Donaire 31-1-1 (25 KO) 2009 |
Nonito Donaire 31-1-1 (25 KO) 2009 |
Z Gorres 38-2-1 (28 KO) 2009 |
vacant |
Nobuo Nashiro 12-1 (7 KO) September 15, 2008 | ||||
Jorge Arce[nb 4] 51-4-1 (39 KO) September 15, 2008 |
Flyweight (112 lb, 50.8 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Takefumi Sakata 33-4-2 (15 KO) March 19, 2007 |
Daisuke Naito 33-2-3 (21 KO) July 18, 2007 |
Nonito Donaire 20-1 (13 KO) July 7, 2007 |
Omar Andrés Narváez 28-0-2 (17 KO) July 13, 2002 |
vacant |
Light flyweight (108 lb, 49 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Brahim Asloum[nb 3] 23-2 (9 KO) December 8, 2007 |
Édgar Sosa 33-5 (17 KO) April 14, 2007 |
Ulises Solís 28-1-2 (20 KO) January 7, 2006 |
Iván Calderón[nb 2] 32-0 (6 KO) August 25, 2007 |
Iván Calderón 32-0 (6 KO) August 25, 2007 |
César Canchila[nb 4] 27-1 (21 KO) July 26, 2008 |
Strawweight (105 lb, 47.6 kg)
WBA | WBC | IBF | WBO | The Ring |
Román González 21-0 (19 KO) September 15, 2008 |
Oleydong Sithsamerchai 28-0 (12 KO) November 29, 2007 |
Raúl García 24-0-1 (15 KO) June 14, 2008 |
Donnie Nietes 23-1-3 (14 KO) September 30, 2007 |
vacant |
Juan Palacios[nb 4] 25-2-0-1 (20 KO) August 2, 2008 |
Daniel Reyes[nb 4] 40-5-1 (30 KO) September 26, 2008 |
See also
Notes
References
- ^ The official rules and regulations of the WBA, IBF, and WBO all mention by name the other three major sanctioning bodies in their title unification rules. The WBC does not mention by name any other sanctioning body in its rules, but it does list the other three major sanctioning bodies' champions on its website. [1] Thus, all four organizations consider only themselves and the other three organizations to be major sanctioning bodies. They do not consider organizations such as the IBO and IBA to be major sanctioning bodies.
- ^ Bastidas, Angel M. "World Boxing Association History". World Boxing Association. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- ^ "World Boxing Association World Championships Regulations" (PDF). World Boxing Association. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- ^ "World Boxing Council: History & Founding Fathers". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- ^ "Rules that have changed the History of Boxing". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- ^ a b "Permanent Medical Research Program". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- ^ a b c "History of the IBF". International Boxing Federation. December 4, 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-12-04. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- ^ "WBO logo". World Boxing Organization. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- ^ "Current Boxing Champions". Yahoo!. May 7, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- ^ "Current Boxing Champions". Sports Illustrated. April 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- ^ Eisele, Andrew (May 6, 2007). "Boxing Champions". About.com. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- ^ "List of Champions". BBC Sport. May 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- ^ "About The Ring". The Ring. June 26, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
{{cite web}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ a b Kellerman, Max (January 22, 2004). "Gatti vs. the unknown". ESPN. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
- "BoxRec title search". BoxRec.com. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- "IBF-USBA official ratings". International Boxing Federation. April 25, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- "WBA official ratings". World Boxing Association. May 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- "The Ring Ratings". The Ring. April 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
{{cite web}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - "WBC official ratings". World Boxing Council. April 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
- "WBO official champions". World Boxing Organization. April 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.