Undisputed championship (boxing)

In professional boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is the boxer who holds world titles from all four of the major sanctioning organisations—WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO—simultaneously.[1][2]

History

Prior to the 1960s, most champions were "undisputed",[3] although the term was rarely used (it does not appear in one 1970 Boxing Dictionary).[4] Early boxing champions at various weight divisions were established by acclamation between 1880 and 1920. Once a consensus champion had been awarded the title, the championship could usually be taken only by beating the reigning holder, establishing a lineal championship.

The New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) recognized champions from its foundation in 1920.[5] The National Boxing Association (NBA) was founded by other U.S. state bodies in 1921, and began recognising champions in 1927.[5] Until the 1960s, both usually recognised the same lineal champion.[3] However, disputes could arise if the champion retired or moved to a different weight class. Occasionally, the International Boxing Union (renamed the European Boxing Union in 1946) recognised a different champion. The disputes were usually short-lived as a lucrative fight would be organised between the rival champions. The longest split was ten years, of the middleweight title, between Mickey Walker's move up to heavyweight in 1931 and NBA champion Tony Zale's defeat of NYSAC contender Georgie Abrams in 1941.[6] An early use of "undisputed" appears in a New York Times preview of the 1941 fight.[7]

The growing popularity of boxing outside of the U.S. led to creation of various boxing organizations, each strengthening their influence (most notably BBBofC) and having their own champion. This resulted in a growing number of boxers claiming to be legitimate champions. The disruption in boxing was solved after the World War II when the World Championship Committee (WCC) was created with NBA as its unanimous authority. The committee, however, was disbanded in 1955 when NBA, along with its new members (which included the Orient, Mexican and South American federations and boxing commissions of the Philippines and Thailand) left WCC citing lack of control over the organisation. The NBA's voting scheme guaranteed one vote for each state commission as well as one vote for each foreign country.[8][9] On August 23, 1962, the NBA officially became the World Boxing Association and moved their headquarters to Panama City, Panama.

A year later NYSAC along with European Boxing Union and BBBofC supported creation of the World Boxing Council. WBC was officially established on February 14, 1963, in Mexico City, Mexico by 11 countries (the U.S., Puerto Rico, Argentina, U.K., France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil) that were invited by the President of Mexico Adolfo López Mateos to form an international organization to unify all commissions of the world to control the expansion of boxing.[10] The reason for the move were concerns about WBA's alleged lack of desire to support professional boxing outside of the U.S..[11]

In April 1983, members of United States Boxing Association along with Robert W. Lee (a former WBA vice-president) voted to expand the organisation and form the USBA-International. The organization later changed the name to International Boxing Federation.[12] The inaugural IBF heavyweight champion was Larry Holmes, who relinquished the WBC title to accept IBF's recognition, thus helping the newly formed organization to establish its legitimacy.[13] The fragmentation of titles was thus increased. After some negotiations, the heavyweight title was unified in the heavyweight unification series, a series of coordinated bouts in 1986 and 1987, with Mike Tyson emerging as the first undisputed champion (WBA, WBC, and IBF) since Leon Spinks in 1978.[14] The title was split again in 1992 when Riddick Bowe forfeited the WBC title.

Another major sanctioning body, the World Boxing Organisation, was established in 1988 in San Juan, Puerto Rico by a group of local businessmen. At the beginnings, when most of the challengers for WBA, WBC, and IBF titles were Americans, WBO had a wider variety of countries, mainly European, represented in title bouts. Before the Klitschko Era, the United Kingdom tied the United States for most wins in WBO heavyweight title fights with eight.[15] By 2001, the WBA was giving the same recognition to WBO champions as to WBA, WBC, and IBF champions.[16] In 2004, the WBC began naming WBO champions on its ranking listings.[17] The IBF did not recognise the WBO in May 2006,[18] but was doing so by February 2007.[19] Conversely, the WBO explicitly recognises the other three sanctioning bodies.[20]

Until around 2007, many considered it sufficient to hold the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles.[21][22][23] Other bodies such as the IBO, IBU, and World Boxing Foundation are disregarded.

Disputed undisputed champions

If a fighter wins all the titles but is stripped by one organization of its title, he may continue to be considered the undisputed champion.

Roy Jones Jr. was promoted as the undisputed light heavyweight champion by HBO after unifying the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles in June 1999, for which he was also competed awarded The Ring championship title in 2002. However, two of those titles (WBA and IBF) had been stripped from Dariusz Michalczewski, who had unified them with his WBO title by beating the lineal champion Virgil Hill in June 1997, and subsequently remained unbeaten, defending his remaining title, until his first loss in October 2003.[24] Speaking of Jones' claim to being undisputed champion, one writer opined that the distinction "could just as easily belong to current WBO titlist Dariusz Michalczewski."[25]

Five months after Lennox Lewis unified the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles to become the undisputed heavyweight champion, a U.S. Federal Judge ruled that Lewis would be stripped by the WBA of their world championship belt for fighting Michael Grant instead of the association's #1 contender, John Ruiz. The fight took place on April 29, 2000. Lewis remained a unified world champion until April 22, 2001, when he was defeated by Hasim Rahman. He regained the WBC and IBF titles following victory over Rahman seven months later in a rematch. His reign as a unified world champion ended in September 2002, when he rejected the chance to fight the IBF's #1 contender, Chris Byrd, and was therefore stripped by the organisation of their belt. He retained his WBC title until his retirement in February 2004.

Jermain Taylor won all four middleweight titles from Bernard Hopkins in July 2005, but was stripped of the IBF title for agreeing to a rematch rather than fighting Sam Soliman.[26] Nevertheless, he was still described as "undisputed champion" by some reports.[27][28]

After Joe Calzaghe's super middleweight victory over Mikkel Kessler in November 2007, he was frequently described as "undisputed champion".[29][30][31][32] Others disputed this, because although he held the WBA, WBC, and WBO titles, he had vacated his IBF title in November 2006 for choosing to face Peter Manfredo Jr. as his next opponent instead of mandatory challenger Robert Stieglitz.[33][34][35]

Unified championship

WBA Super Championship belt

The unified champion is defined as a boxer that holds at least two world championships of major sanctioning bodies (WBA, WBC, IBF or WBO) in their respective division.[36][37][38] Around 2004, the World Boxing Association recognized three different types: the unified champion (two-titles holder in the weight division or category, obliged to defend the title against WBA's No. 1 contender in 18 months periodically), the undisputed champion (three-titles holder, mandatory defense against WBA's challenger in 21 months regularly) and the super champion (four-titles holder, WBA's mandatory defense in 24 months periodically). The rules required only one unified/undisputed/super champion per weight class and the purse in the bid would be distributed in a 65/35 ratio in favor of the unified champion.[39] However, along with the changes to "super" status (besided holding more than one title, the super titles were awarded to champions that were able to defend the WBA title 5 times),[37] the term "undisputed" was dropped completely.

Current unified champions

As of December 19, 2020

Weight class	Champion	Recognition	Consec. defenses	Reign began
Minimumweight	vacant
Light flyweight	vacant
Flyweight	vacant
Super flyweight	vacant
Bantamweight	Naoya Inoue	WBA, IBF	1	May 18, 2019
Super bantamweight	Murodjon Akhmadaliev	WBA, IBF	0	January 30, 2020
Featherweight	vacant
Super featherweight	vacant
Lightweight	Teófimo López	WBA, IBF, WBO	0	October 17, 2020
Light welterweight	José Ramírez	WBC, WBO	1	July 27, 2019
Light welterweight	Josh Taylor	WBA, IBF	1	October 26, 2019
Welterweight	Errol Spence Jr.	WBC, IBF	1	Sep 28, 2019
Light middleweight	Jermell Charlo	WBA, WBC, IBF	0	September 26, 2020
Middleweight	vacant
Super middleweight	Canelo Álvarez	WBC, WBA	0	December 19, 2020
Light heavyweight	Artur Beterbiev	WBC, IBF	0	Oct 18, 2019
Cruiserweight	Vacant
Heavyweight	Anthony Joshua	WBA, IBF, WBO	1	December 7, 2019

Most wins in unified championship bouts

Keys:

  Active title reign

  Reign has ended

Wladimir Klitschko won the unified championship in 2008 and defended it 14 times

	Name	Title recognition	Division	Title bout wins
1.	Wladimir Klitschko	WBA, WBO, IBF	Heavyweight	15
2.	José Nápoles	WBA, WBC	Welterweight	14
	Muhammad Ali	WBA, WBC	Heavyweight
4.	Marvin Hagler	WBA, WBC, IBF	Middleweight	13
5.	Carlos Monzón	WBA, WBC	Middleweight	12
	Roy Jones Jr.	WBA, WBC, IBF	Light heavyweight
7.	Evander Holyfield	WBA, WBC, IBF	Heavyweight Cruiserweight	11
8.	Bob Foster	WBA, WBC	Light heavyweight	10
	Carlos Ortiz	WBA, WBC	Lightweight
10.	Bernard Hopkins	WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF	Light heavyweight Middleweight	9
	Mike Tyson	WBA, WBC, IBF	Heavyweight
12.	Emile Griffith	WBA, WBC	Middleweight Welterweight	8
	Nino Benvenuti	WBA, WBC	Middleweight Light middleweight
	Vicente Saldivar	WBA, WBC	Featherweight
15.	Pernell Whitaker	WBA, WBC, IBF	Lightweight	7
16.	Lennox Lewis	WBA, WBC, IBF	Heavyweight	6
	Juan Manuel Márquez	WBA, WBO, IBF	Super featherweight Featherweight
	Gabriel Elorde	WBA, WBC	Super featherweight
	Rubén Olivares	WBA, WBC	Bantamweight
20.	Floyd Mayweather Jr.	WBA, WBC	Light middleweight Welterweight	5
	Dick Tiger	WBA, WBC	Light heavyweight Middleweight
	Sergey Kovalev	WBA, WBO, IBF	Light heavyweight
	Gennady Golovkin	WBA, WBC, IBF	Middleweight
	Fighting Harada	WBA, WBC	Bantamweight
	Joe Frazier	WBA, WBC	Heavyweight
	Kostya Tszyu	WBA, WBC	Light welterweight
	Sven Ottke	WBA, IBF	Super middleweight
	Terry Norris	WBC, IBF	Light middleweight
29.	Andre Ward	WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF	Light heavyweight Super middleweight	4
	Julio César Chávez	WBA, WBC, IBF	Light welterweight Lightweight
	Terence Crawford	WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF	Light welterweight
	Vic Darchinyan	WBA, WBC, IBF	Super flyweight
	George Foreman	WBA, WBC, IBF	Heavyweight
	Guillermo Rigondeaux	WBA, WBO	Super bantamweight
	Humberto González	WBC, IBF	Light flyweight
	Naseem Hamed	WBC, IBF	Featherweight
	Anthony Joshua	WBA, IBF, WBO	Heavyweight

Most consecutive defenses of unified title

Keys:

  Active title reign

  Reign has ended

Muhammad Ali defended the unified heavyweight championship 10 times; the record was unbeaten for 36 years

	Name	Title recognition	Division	Consec. defenses
1.	Wladimir Klitschko	WBA, WBO, IBF	Heavyweight	14
2.	Marvin Hagler	WBA, WBC, IBF	Middleweight	12
3.	Muhammad Ali	WBA, WBC	Heavyweight	10
	Roy Jones Jr.	WBA, WBC, IBF	Light heavyweight
5.	Carlos Monzón	WBA, WBC	Middleweight	9
6.	Mike Tyson	WBA, WBC, IBF	Heavyweight	8
7.	Bernard Hopkins	WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF	Middleweight	7
	Vicente Saldivar	WBA, WBC	Featherweight
9.	José Nápoles	WBA, WBC	Welterweight	6
	Pernell Whitaker	WBA, WBC, IBF	Lightweight
11.	Bob Foster	WBA, WBC	Light heavyweight	5
	Gennady Golovkin	WBA, WBC, IBF	Middleweight
	Carlos Ortiz	WBA, WBC	Lightweight
	Gabriel Elorde	WBA, WBC	Super featherweight
15.	Nino Benvenuti	WBA, WBC	Middleweight	4
	Sergey Kovalev	WBA, WBO, IBF	Light heavyweight
	Fighting Harada	WBA, WBC	Bantamweight
	Joe Frazier	WBA, WBC	Heavyweight
	Kostya Tszyu	WBA, WBC	Light welterweight
	Sven Ottke	WBA, IBF	Super middleweight
	Terry Norris	WBC, IBF	Light middleweight
22.	Floyd Mayweather Jr.	WBA, WBC	Welterweight	3
	Evander Holyfield	WBA, WBC, IBF	Heavyweight
	Terence Crawford	WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF	Light welterweight
	Humberto González	WBC, IBF	Light flyweight
	Juan Manuel Márquez	WBA, IBF	Featherweight
	Vic Darchinyan	WBA, WBC, IBF	Super flyweight
	Lennox Lewis	WBC, IBF	Heavyweight
	Guillermo Rigondeaux	WBA, WBO	Super bantamweight
	Anthony Joshua	WBA, IBF, WBO	Heavyweight

Unification series

Tournaments have been arranged to unify the titles in a weight class.

• The HBO Heavyweight Boxing Series, held in 1986–88, crowned Mike Tyson as the undisputed heavyweight champion.
• World Boxing Super Series, held since 2017, produced Oleksandr Usyk as the undisputed cruiserweight champion.

See also

• Lineal championship
• List of current world boxing champions
• List of undisputed boxing champions

References

1. Holyfield, Evander; Gruenfeld, Lee (2008). Becoming Holyfield: A Fighter's Journey. Simon & Schuster. p. 123. ISBN 1-4165-3486-5.
2. "Boxing". Encarta. p. 5 "Professional Boxing". Archived from the original on June 5, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-14. If one fighter manages to capture the titles of all the major organizations at once, this is known as "unifying" the title and the boxer is the "undisputed" champion.
3. Morrison, Ian (1990). The Guinness World Championship Boxing book. Guinness Publishing. pp. 126–137. ISBN 0-85112-900-5.
4. Avis, Frederick Compton (1970). Boxing Dictionary (2nd ed.). p. 141. ISBN 0-211-26839-9.
5. Morrison, pp.14–15
6. Fleischer, Nat; Andre, Sam (1998) [1959]. A pictorial history of boxing. rev. Nat Loubet, Gilbert Odd, Peter Arnold, Nigel Collins. Hamlyn. pp. 230–235. ISBN 0-600-59521-8.
7. Dawson, James P. (25 November 1941). "Phelan to check on title rivals". New York Times. p. 34. Retrieved 2008-11-20.
8. Reveille vol. 38, Nov. 4, 1964 (p. 23)
9. James B. Roberts, Alexander G. Skutt: The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book (p. 50)
10. "History of the WBC". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
11. John Sugden: Boxing and Society: An International Analysis (p. 49)
12. "History of IBF/USBA". International Boxing Federation. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
13. "IBF/USBA History". IBF. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
14. Berger, Phil (August 2, 1987). "Tyson undisputed and unanimous titlist". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
15. former champion Michael Bentt holds both British and American citizenship.
16. "Super championships guidelines". WBA. Archived from the original on 2001-11-19. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
17. Compare
    "WBC Bantamweight Ratings (incl. WBO)". WBC. Archived from the original on 2004-08-03. Retrieved 2008-11-15. and
    "WBC Bantamweight Ratings (excl. WBO)". WBC. Archived from the original on 2004-02-04. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
18. "IBF/USBA Rules Governing Championship Contests" (PDF). pp.10–11. IBF. May 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2008-11-15. For the purpose of unification of titles, the Champions of the World Boxing Association ("WBA") and the World Boxing Council ("WBC") may be designated as "elite contenders" and may be permitted to fight for the unified title. Unification bouts with other organizations will be considered on a case to case basis.
19. "IBF Ratings". IBF. February 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
20. "§7 unification bouts and unification tournaments as mandatory title bouts". Regulations of World Championship Contests (PDF). WBO. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
21. Shields, Ronnie; Jones, Robert. "Interview with Evander Holyfield's Trainer Ronnie Shields". fightnightnews.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-14. He wants to be undisputed, so that means he's got three belts out there that he wants. WBA, WBC, and IBF, those are the titles he wants.
22. Daniels, Eddie (February 1, 2008). "Campbell Ready To Put On Show". Tampa Tribune. Retrieved 2008-11-14. Antonio Tarver has made his quest to add to his IBO light heavyweight title a playoff-like system. / "Right now, my goal is three fights, three belts, undisputed by the end of the year," Tarver said. / Round 1 begins April 12 against Clinton Woods at the St. Pete Times Forum. According to Tarver, he'll take Woods' IBF lightweight title, then he's going after Danny Green's WBA light heavyweight belt. After that, he'll take on the winner of the Chad Dawson-Glen Johnson fight, which on the undercard of his bout with Woods, for the WBC belt.
23. Cox, Jesse K. (January 19, 2006). "Waiting for Zab Judah". thesweetscience.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2007. Retrieved 2008-11-14. the undisputed welterweight champion of the world – owner of the IBF, WBC and WBA belts
24. "The Lineal Light Heavyweight Champions". The Cyber Boxing Zone Encyclopedia.
25. Steve Kim (September 26, 2002). "The Disputed Light Heavyweight Champion of the World". Max Boxing. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved 2008-11-15.
26. "Taylor drops IBF belt for Hopkins". BBC News. 12 October 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
27. Raphael, Dan (December 9, 2005). "Taylor-Wright might be a summer date". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2008-11-14. Wright would rather be facing undisputed middleweight champ Jermain Taylor.
28. "Taylor retains undisputed title". Sporting Life. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
29. Johnson, Chuck (2007-11-03). "Calzaghe beats Kessler to unify belts, eyes Hopkins". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
30. Paul Upham (November 4, 2007). "Calzaghe Outboxes Kessler To Become Undisputed World Champion". SecondsOut.com. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
31. Staniforth, Mark (4 November 2007). "Battler Calzaghe triumphs against Kessler". The Independent on Sunday. PA Sport. Retrieved 2008-11-10. Joe Calzaghe was crowned undisputed world super-middleweight champion in Cardiff tonight
32. "Calzaghe the king in Cardiff Welshman wows his home crowd with points win over great Dane". Sky Sports. 4 November 2007. Archived from the original on 12 January 2009. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
33. Gonzalez, Frank, Jr. (November 3, 2007). "Sharkie's Machine: Joe Calzaghe Too Slick For Mikkel Kessler". eastsideboxing.com. Retrieved 2008-11-10. Joe Calzaghe, who is now the closest to being the undisputed Super Middleweight Champion of the World. (There's still the IBF Title if he's to have all four of the most recognized belts.)
34. Kimball, George (November 11, 2007). "Calzaghe's plans quickly Executed". Boston Herald. Retrieved 2008-11-10. Lucien Bute, whose claim to the International Boxing Federation title is all that stands between the Welshman and undisputed world champion status
35. Swann, Michael (3 November 2008). "Darchinyan keeps promise, silences critics". 15rounds.com. Retrieved 2008-11-14. Since when has holding the three major belts not been considered worthy of "undisputed?"
36. Archived 2018-02-05 at the Wayback MachineInternational Boxing Federation rules: governing championship contests
37. World Boxing Association rules and regulations
38. World Boxing Organization: regulation of world championship contests
39. World Boxing Association rules and regulations, January 2004