How do you become an "absolute champion" in professional boxing?

How do you become an "absolute champion" in professional boxing?

Who are the athletes who took the world top in this sport?

Boxing is a sport in which there is more than one world title, and you should not be surprised if two or more competitors of the same weight class are world champions at the same time. Clashes between holders of different belts turn into real spectacles, because two boxers who have reached the top meet and try to unite at least two titles. The question is, can all the titles be combined and how many are they?

Of course it can. The titles are currently four in total, corresponding to the four organizations in world boxing. Thus there can be a world champion of the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO). The boxer who won all these belts at once is considered the absolute champion of his category. Since there have been four different world honors since 2007, there have only been ten people who have managed to combine all the titles. However, history has known many absolute champions before that.

Prior to the 1960s, the title "Absolute Champion" was almost never used, as there simply weren't many world titles to be unified. Since 1927, two organizations have existed, but they do not have different champions. The only problem is when a world title holder moves down or quits while at the top. Thus, for example, the International Boxing Union, renamed in 1946 to the European Boxing Union, recognizes a different champion.

The term "absolute champion" appeared for the first time in 1941 in the New York Times, which wrote about a match unifying the middleweight titles. However, as the popularity of boxing grew, more and more organizations appeared that wanted to have their own champion. Thus, in 1962, the World Boxing Association was established, and a year later, the World Boxing Council was established. From this point on, there are now two world titles and there may be two different champions on the planet. In 1983, the boxing association of the United States of America grew into an international one, which later received the name International Boxing Federation (IBF).

The first boxer who managed to unite more than two titles was Mike Tyson, who became the champion of the WBA, WBC and IBF in the years between 1986 and 1987. After another year, however, another organization appeared. It is about the World Boxing Organization, which covers countries other than the United States and gives mostly Europeans the opportunity to step on top of the world. In 2004, the WBC began to recognize the WBO champions, and in 2007, the IBF did the same, so that there are now four official world titles.

Six men and four women managed to unify all four titles. Even before the official recognition of the WBO by the IBF, Bernard Hopkins won all the middleweight belts in September 2004. In July of the following year, Jermaine Taylor dethroned Hopkins. As of August 2017, no other man in any division has managed to capture all four titles, but Terence Crawford does so in the light welterweight division. A year later, Oleksandr Usyk of Ukraine unifies the light heavyweight titles. In 2021, two more names can be called absolute champions. In May, Josh Taylor won everything he could at light-welterweight, and in November, Canelo Alvarez cemented his dominance at super-middleweight.

On the women's side, Cecilia Breckhus won all four belts at welterweight in September 2014, and Clarissa Shields triumphed first at middleweight and then at light middleweight. Katie Taylor in lightweight in June 2019 and Jessica McCaskill in welterweight after success over Breckhus are the other competitors bearing the title of absolute champion.

In years past, however, a number of famous, dominant men's boxers have unified world titles. Sonny Liston became the first heavyweight in the WBA and WBC era. Then Muhammad Ali also competed, who became the absolute champion three times and made a total of 11 successful defenses. George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Leon Spinks are the other names who simultaneously hold the belts of the World Boxing Association and the World Boxing Council.

With the appearance of the IBF on the scene, Mike Tyson is the first in the heavyweight division and the most successful absolute champion with 6 title defenses. Buster Douglas, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis round out the roster. Speaking of Holyfield, he is the absolute light heavyweight champion as well. In light heavyweight there are competitors such as Bob Forster, who has 10 successful defenses, Dick Tiger and Miker Spinks. But Roy Jones Jr. is perhaps the greatest in this division, having held three titles from June 5th, 1999 to February 23rd, 2003 and successfully defended his belts 7 times.

When we talk about absolute champions, we cannot fail to mention the names of Carlos Monzon and Nino Benvenuti in the middleweight category, where we will once again find Dick Tiger. Marvelous Marvin Hagler has 6 defenses of the WBA and WBC titles, and in May 83 he also won the IBF belt to unite three world titles, which he retained in five matches. Bernard Hopkins is his most successful successor.

Among the lighter ones, it is worth mentioning the names of Emil Griffith, Jose Napoles and Sugar Ray Leonard in the welterweight division. Carlos Ortiz at lightweight and the only one to hold three lightweight titles Pernal Whittaker in the early 1990s. In the bantamweight category, the most impressive name is that of the Japanese Fighting Harada, but the first absolute champion is Eder Jofre.

It is definitely no easy task to be at the top of your category for even one world title, but to win two, three or four is truly a sign of dominance. The title "absolute champion" is indeed carried by many competitors, but only a part of them really deserve it. And with four world titles to his name, his weight becomes even greater and the possibility of winning it much less.

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