“Champions aren’t made in the ring, they are merely recognized there. What you cheat on in the early light of morning will show up in the ring under the bright lights.” - Joe Frazier
Current Boxing Champions
It was partly a reflection of the bewildering number of boxing belts available when the oldest major sanctioning organisation in the world, the World Boxing Association, announced plans in late
2021 to reduce the number of titles it offers. Then there are the World Boxing Organization, the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Council, all bestowing recognised world titles
across divisions ranging from 115lb strawweights to heavyweight man-mountains. A unified champion carries at least one of those belts and an undisputed boxer carries all four. The Ring, meanwhile,
attempts to make matters linear by rewarding 'the man who beat the man'.
With 17 weight classes in boxing and four major sanctioning bodies that bestow world titles, keeping track of who holds each of the belts can be difficult -- especially when there are sometimes
multiple titlists in each organization because of interim and secondary belts.
To make it easier for boxing fans, below is a quick reference chart of who holds each of the titles in the four organizations: