List of current world boxing champions

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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 United States Olympic Hall of Fame includes the following boxers: Muhammad Ali (inducted as Cassius Clay), George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ray Leonard, Floyd Patterson, Eddie Eagan, and Óscar De La Hoya.

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
Russia Nikolay Valuev
49-1-0-1 (34 KO)
August 30, 2008 		Nigeria Samuel Peter
30-1 (23 KO)
March 8, 2008 		Ukraine Wladimir Klitschko[15]
51-3 (45 KO)
April 22, 2006 		Ukraine Wladimir Klitschko[16]
51-3 (45 KO)
February 23, 2008 		vacant
Uzbekistan Ruslan Chagaev[17]
24-0-1 (17 KO)
April 14, 2007

Cruiserweight (200 lb, 90.7 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Panama Guillermo Jones
36-3-2 (28 KO)
September 27, 2008 		vacant United States Steve Cunningham
21-1 (11 KO)
May 26, 2007 		vacant vacant

Light heavyweight (175 lb, 79.4 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Argentina Hugo Hernán Garay
31-3 (17 KO)
July 3, 2008 		Romania Adrian Diaconu
25-0 (15 KO)
July 11, 2008 		United States Antonio Tarver
27-4 (19 KO)
April 12, 2008 		Hungary Zsolt Erdei
29-0 (17 KO)
January 17, 2004 		United Kingdom Joe Calzaghe[16]
45-0 (32 KO)
April 19, 2008

Super middleweight (168 lb, 76.2 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Denmark Mikkel Kessler
40-1 (30 KO)
June 21, 2008 		vacant Romania Lucian Bute
22-0 (18 KO)
October 19, 2007 		Russia Denis Inkin
34-0 (24 KO)
September 27, 2008 		vacant

Middleweight (160 lb, 72.6 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Germany Felix Sturm
30-2-1 (13 KO)
April 28, 2007 		United States Kelly Pavlik[15]
34-0 (30 KO)
September 29, 2007 		Germany Arthur Abraham
27-0 (22 KO)
December 10, 2005 		United States Kelly Pavlik
34-0 (30 KO)
September 29, 2007 		United States Kelly Pavlik
34-0 (30 KO)
September 29, 2007

Super welterweight (154 lb, 69.9 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Puerto Rico Daniel Santos
32-3-1-1 (23 KO)
July 11, 2008 		United States Vernon Forrest
41-3-0-1 (29 KO)
September 13, 2008 		United States Verno Phillips
42-10-1-1 (21 KO)
March 27, 2008 		Ukraine Sergiy Dzinziruk
35-0 (22 KO)
December 3, 2005 		vacant
Argentina Sergio Gabriel Martínez[18]
44-1-1 (23 KO)
October 4, 2008

Welterweight (147 lb, 66.7 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Mexico Antonio Margarito[15]
37-5-0-1 (27 KO)
July 26, 2008 		United States Andre Berto
23-0 (19 KO)
June 21, 2008 		Ghana Joshua Clottey
35-2-0-1 (20 KO)
August 2, 2008 		United States Paul Williams
35-1 (26 KO)
June 7, 2008 		vacant
Ukraine Yuriy Nuzhnenko
27-0-1 (13 KO)
December 8, 2007

Super lightweight (140 lb, 63.5 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Ukraine Andriy Kotelnik
30-2-1 (13 KO)
March 22, 2008 		United States Timothy Bradley
23-0 (11 KO)
May 10, 2008 		vacant United States Kendall Holt
24-2 (13 KO)
July 5, 2008 		United Kingdom Ricky Hatton
44-1 (31 KO)
June 4, 2005

Lightweight (135 lb, 61.2 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
United States Nate Campbell[15]
32-5-1 (25 KO)
March 8, 2008 		Philippines Manny Pacquiao
47-3-2 (35 KO)
June 28, 2008 		United States Nate Campbell
32-5-1 (25 KO)
March 8, 2008 		United States Nate Campbell
32-5-1 (25 KO)
March 8, 2008 		Mexico Juan Manuel Márquez
49-4-1 (36 KO)
September 13, 2008
Japan Yusuke Kobori
23-2-1 (12 KO)
May 19, 2008

Super featherweight (130 lb, 59 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
vacant vacant South Africa Cassius Baloyi
36-3-1 (19 KO)
April 12, 2008 		United Kingdom Nicky Cook
29-1 (16 KO)
September 6, 2008 		vacant

Featherweight (126 lb, 57.2 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Indonesia Chris John
41-0-1 (22 KO)
November 1, 2003 		Mexico Óscar Larios
62-6-1 (39 KO)
August 13, 2008 		vacant United States Steven Luevano
35-1-1 (15 KO)
July 14, 2007 		vacant

Super bantamweight (122 lb, 55.3 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Panama Celestino Caballero
30-2 (21 KO)
October 4, 2006 		Mexico Israel Vázquez
43-4 (31 KO)
August 4, 2007 		Canada Steve Molitor
28-0 (11 KO)
November 10, 2006 		Puerto Rico Juan Manuel López
22-0 (20 KO)
June 7, 2008 		Mexico Israel Vázquez
43-4 (31 KO)
August 4, 2007
Panama Ricardo Córdoba[18]
34-1-2 (21 KO)
September 18, 2008 		Japan Toshiaki Nishioka[18]
32-4-3 (19 KO)
September 15, 2008

Bantamweight (118 lb, 53.5 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Panama Anselmo Moreno
23-1-1 (8 KO)
May 31, 2008 		Japan Hozumi Hasegawa
24-2 (8 KO)
April 16, 2005 		Ghana Joseph Agbeko
25-1 (22 KO)
September 29, 2007 		Philippines Gerry Peñalosa
53-6-2 (36 KO)
August 11, 2007 		vacant

Super flyweight (115 lb, 52.2 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Mexico Cristian Mijares[15]
36-3-2 (15 KO)
May 17, 2008 		Mexico Cristian Mijares
36-3-2 (15 KO)
December 6, 2006 		Armenia Vic Darchinyan
30-1-1 (24 KO)
August 2, 2008 		Mexico Fernando Montiel
37-2-1 (28 KO)
April 9, 2005 		vacant
Japan Nobuo Nashiro
12-1 (7 KO)
September 15, 2008
Mexico Jorge Arce[18]
50-4-1 (38 KO)
September 15, 2008

Flyweight (112 lb, 50.8 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Japan Takefumi Sakata
33-4-2 (15 KO)
March 19, 2007 		Japan Daisuke Naito
33-2-3 (21 KO)
July 18, 2007 		Philippines Nonito Donaire
19-1 (12 KO)
July 7, 2007 		Argentina Omar Andrés Narváez
28-0-2 (17 KO)
July 13, 2002 		vacant

Light flyweight (108 lb, 49 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
France Brahim Asloum[17]
23-2 (9 KO)
December 8, 2007 		Mexico Édgar Sosa
33-5 (17 KO)
April 14, 2007 		Mexico Ulises Solís
27-1-2 (20 KO)
January 7, 2006 		Puerto Rico Iván Calderón[16]
32-0 (6 KO)
August 25, 2007 		Puerto Rico Iván Calderón
32-0 (6 KO)
August 25, 2007
Colombia César Canchila[18]
27-1 (21 KO)
July 26, 2008

Strawweight (105 lb, 47.6 kg)

WBA WBC IBF WBO The Ring
Nicaragua Román González
21-0 (19 KO)
September 15, 2008 		Thailand Oleydong Sithsamerchai
27-0 (11 KO)
November 29, 2007 		Mexico Raúl García
24-0-1 (15 KO)
June 14, 2008 		Philippines Donnie Nietes
23-1-3 (14 KO)
September 30, 2007 		vacant
Nicaragua Juan Palacios[18]
24-2-0-1 (19 KO)
August 2, 2008 		Colombia Daniel Reyes[18]
40-5-1 (30 KO)
September 26, 2008

See also

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Bastidas, Angel M. "World Boxing Association History". World Boxing Association. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
  3. ^ "World Boxing Association World Championships Regulations" (PDF). World Boxing Association. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
  4. ^ "World Boxing Council: History & Founding Fathers". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
  5. ^ "Rules that have changed the History of Boxing". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
  6. ^ a b "Permanent Medical Research Program". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ "WBO logo". World Boxing Organization. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
  9. ^ "Current Boxing Champions". Yahoo!. May 7, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  10. ^ "Current Boxing Champions". Sports Illustrated. April 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  11. ^ Eisele, Andrew (May 6, 2007). "Boxing Champions". About.com. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  12. ^ "List of Champions". BBC Sport. May 5, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
  13. ^ "About The Ring". The Ring. June 26, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ a b Kellerman, Max (January 22, 2004). "Gatti vs. the unknown". ESPN. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
  15. ^ a b c d e Undisputed world champion.
  16. ^ a b c WBO super champion.
  17. ^ a b Champion in recess.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Interim world champion.

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