World men's boxing champions list: The Ring, WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO title holders in every weight class
By Luke White
Today's era in boxing recognizes four different sanctioning bodies as having the legitimacy to crown world champions. In order of their age of recognition in the sport, the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO crown title holders in seventeen weight divisions (The WBA and WBC also recognize the bridgerweight division). This is a massive expansion from the original eight glamour divisions that each only had one champion. It's why becoming a multi-weight title holder has lost some of it's luster (Adrien Broner anyone?). In addition to this, The Ring magazine crowns a champion as well. This titleholder is internationally recognized in most circles as the lineal champion of the division.
Diehard and casual boxing fans have often listed the proliferation of more belts and world titles up there with too many PPV's and bad judging as their chief complaints. In fact, most full time boxing journalists can't name the IBF champion in the flyweight division without looking it up. Spoiler, it's vacant. This is to say nothing about the plethora of regional, international, and interim title holders. And as if things couldn't get any more confusing, different sanctioning bodies actually have different names for the same weight classes. For example, the WBA refers to the 154 pound division as super welterweight where as the IBF refers to it as junior middleweight. For this reason, the weight limits are listed next to their respective divisions.
It is nearly a weekly occurrence that world title belts are vacated, interim champions elevated, champions stripped and unification fights won. This list is meant to provide a current look at all the champions across every weight class recognized by the four sanctioning bodies. For levity, interim champions are omitted. Special shout out to Japan, in large part because of two guys named Inoue, they control all the world titles in both junior featherweight and bantamweight.
Heavyweight: Unlimited
The Ring: Oleksandr Usyk WBA: Oleksandr Usyk WBC: Oleksandr Usyk IBF: Daniel Dubois WBO: Oleksandr Usyk
Bridgerweight: 224 pounds
WBA: vacant WBC: Lawrence Okolie
The Ring, IBF and WBO do not recognize the bridgerweight division.
Cruiserweight: 200 pounds
The Ring: Jai Opetaia WBA: Gilberto Ramirez WBC: Noel Mikaelyan IBF: Jai Opetaia WBO: Chris Billam-Smith
Light heavyweight: 175 pounds
The Ring: Artur Beterbiev WBA: Dmitry Bivol WBC: Artur Beterbiev IBF: Artur Beterbiev WBO: Artur Beterbiev
Super middleweight: 168 pounds
The Ring: Saul Alvarez WBA: Saul Alvarez WBC: Saul Alvarez IBF: Saul Alvarez WBO: Saul Alvarez
Middleweight: 160 pounds
The Ring: vacant WBA: Erislandy Lara WBC: Carlos Adames IBF: Janibek Alimkhanuly WBO: Janibek Alimkhanuly
Junior middleweight: 154 pounds
The Ring: Jermell Charlo WBA: Israil Madrimov WBC: Sebastian Fundora IBF: Bakhram Murtazaliev WBO: Sebastian Fundora
Welterweight: 147 pounds
The Ring: Terence Crawford WBA: Terence Crawford WBC: Mario Barrios IBF: Jaron Ennis WBO: Terence Crawford
Junior welterweight: 140 pounds
The Ring: Teofimo Lopez WBA: Isaac Cruz WBC: Vacant IBF: Liam Paro WBO: Teofimo Lopez
Lightweight: 135 pounds
The Ring: vacant WBA: Gervonta Davis WBC: Shakur Stevenson IBF: Vasyl Lomachenko WBO: Denys Berinchyk
Junior lightweight: 130 pounds
The Ring: vacant WBA: Lamont Roach Jr. WBC: Robson Conceicao IBF: Anthony Cacace WBO: Emanuel Navarrete
Featherweight: 126 pounds
The Ring: vacant WBA: Nick Ball WBC: Rey Vargas IBF: Luis Alberto Lopez WBO: Rafael Espinoza
Junior featherweight: 122 pounds
The Ring: Naoya Inoue WBA: Naoya Inoue WBC: Naoya Inoue IBF: Naoya Inoue WBO: Naoya Inoue
Bantamweight: 118 pounds
The Ring: vacant WBA: Takuma Inoue WBC: Junto Nakatani IBF: Ryosuke Nishida WBO: Yoshiki Takei
Junior bantamweight: 115 pounds
The Ring: Jesse Rodriguez WBA: Fernando Martinez WBC: Jesse Rodriquez IBF: Fernando Martinez WBO: Kosei Tanaka
Flyweight: 112 pounds
The Ring: vacant WBA: Seigo Akui WBC: vacant IBF: vacant WBO: vacant
Junior flyweight: 108 pounds
The Ring: Kenshiro Teraji WBA: Kenshiro Teraji WBC: Kenshiro Teraji IBF: Sivenathi Nontshinga WBO: vacant
Strawweight: 105 pounds
The Ring: vacant WBA: CP Freshmart WBC: Melvin Jerusalem IBF: Ginjiro Shigeoka WBO: Oscar Collazo
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