Undisputed champion

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This article is about undisputed champions in boxing. For undisputed champions in professional wrestling, see Undisputed Championship.

In professional boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is a boxer who is recognized as the world champion at that class by each boxing organization.[1][2] The term is also used in the UFC.

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 NBA renamed itself the World Boxing Association in 1962 (later based in Panama), and in 1963 the NYSAC, EBU and other countries formed the rival World Boxing Council, based in Mexico.[5] The number of disputed champions increased in the 1960s and especially in the 1970s.[3] Both bodies established separate official rankings and required champions to face their top-ranked contenders or forfeit their titles. Some of the most highly regarded and lucrative fights were unification bouts between rival champions to create an "undisputed champion".

The International Boxing Federation (IBF) was founded as the USBA-I in 1976 and by 1984 had enough credibility to be considered major.[8] The fragmentation of titles was thus increased. After some negotiations, the heavyweight title was unified in a series of co-ordinated bouts in 1985–87, with Mike Tyson emerging as the first undisputed champion (WBC, WBA & IBF) since Leon Spinks in 1978.[9] The title was split again in 1992 when Riddick Bowe forfeited the WBC title.

The World Boxing Organization (WBO), established in Puerto Rico in 1988, took longer to acquire credibility. By 2001, the WBA was giving the same recognition to WBO champions as to WBA, WBC and IBF champions.[10] In 2004 the WBC began naming WBO champions on its ranking listings.[11] The IBF did not recognise the WBO in May 2006,[12] but was doing so by February 2007.[13] Conversely, the WBO explicitly recognises the other three sanctioning bodies.[14]

Some sources consider the WBO title necessary for an undisputed champion.[15][16][17][18] Others continue to consider it sufficient to hold the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles.[19][20][21] 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 spuriously 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 awarded The Ring championship title in 2002. However, two of those belts (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 belt until 2004. 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."[22]

Five months after Lennox Lewis unified the WBC, IBF and WBA belts 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 belts 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 belt until his retirement in February 2004.

Jermain Taylor won all four middleweight belts from Bernard Hopkins in July 2005, but was stripped of the IBF title for agreeing to a rematch rather than fighting Sam Soliman.[23] Nevertheless, he was still described as "undisputed champion" by some reports.[24][25]

After Joe Calzaghe's super middleweight victory over Mikkel Kessler in November 2007, he was frequently described as "undisputed champion".[26][27][28][29] Others disputed this, because although he held the WBA, WBC, and WBO belts, he vacated his IBF title in November 2006 rather than face a mandatory challenger, and immediately vacated other titles as well.[15][30][31]

See also

References

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  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Morrison, pp.14–15
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  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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