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This is a list of current boxing world champions who are certified by the four major boxing sanctioning bodies 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. 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".

The World Boxing Council (WBC) was founded in Mexico City, Mexico on February 14, 1963 in order to establish an international regulating body. The WBC established many of today's safety measures in boxing, such as the standing eight-count, a limit of 12 rounds instead of 15, and additional weight classes. 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. In April 1983, The organization established an international division that was known as the United States Boxing Association-International (USBA-I). In May 1984, the New Jersey-based USBA-I was renamed and became the IBF.

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." 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, whereas others do.

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." 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). 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. (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
Nikolay Valuev 49-1-0-1 (34 KO) August 30, 2008	Vitali Klitschko 36-2 (35 KO) October 11, 2008	Wladimir Klitschko 51-3 (45 KO) April 22, 2006	Wladimir Klitschko 51-3 (45 KO) February 23, 2008	vacant
Ruslan Chagaev 24-0-1 (17 KO) April 14, 2007

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 31-3 (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 45-0 (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
Felix Sturm 30-2-1 (13 KO) April 28, 2007	Kelly Pavlik 34-1 (30 KO) September 29, 2007	Arthur Abraham 27-0 (22 KO) December 10, 2005	Kelly Pavlik 34-1 (30 KO) September 29, 2007	Kelly Pavlik 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	Verno Phillips 42-10-1-1 (21 KO) March 27, 2008	Sergiy Dzinziruk 35-0 (22 KO) December 3, 2005	vacant
	Sergio Gabriel Martínez 44-1-1 (24 KO) October 4, 2008

Welterweight (147 lb, 66.7 kg)

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

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 44-1 (31 KO) June 4, 2005

Lightweight (135 lb, 61.2 kg)

WBA	WBC	IBF	WBO	The Ring
Nate Campbell 32-5-1 (25 KO) March 8, 2008	Manny 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 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 30-2 (21 KO) October 4, 2006	Israel Vázquez 43-4 (31 KO) August 4, 2007	Steve Molitor 28-0 (11 KO) November 10, 2006	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 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
Cristian Mijares 36-3-2 (15 KO) May 17, 2008	Cristian Mijares 36-3-2 (15 KO) December 6, 2006	Vic Darchinyan 30-1-1 (24 KO) August 2, 2008	Fernando Montiel 37-2-1 (28 KO) April 9, 2005	vacant
Nobuo Nashiro 12-1 (7 KO) September 15, 2008
Jorge Arce 50-4-1 (38 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 19-1 (12 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 23-2 (9 KO) December 8, 2007	Édgar Sosa 33-5 (17 KO) April 14, 2007	Ulises Solís 27-1-2 (20 KO) January 7, 2006	Iván Calderón 32-0 (6 KO) August 25, 2007	Iván Calderón 32-0 (6 KO) August 25, 2007
César Canchila 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 24-2-0-1 (19 KO) August 2, 2008		Daniel Reyes 40-5-1 (30 KO) September 26, 2008

See also

• Boxing weight classes
• Ring Magazine pound for pound

Notes

1. ^ Undisputed world champion.
2. ^ WBO super champion.
3. ^ Champion in recess.
4. ^ Interim world champion.

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. 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. ^ "Permanent Medical Research Program". World Boxing Council. Retrieved 2006-06-06.
7. ^ "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. ^ 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.

• Lists of boxers
• Lists of men
• World boxing champions