Undisputed championship (boxing)
In professional boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is the boxer who holds world titles from all four of the major sanctioning organisations—WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO—simultaneously.
History
Prior to the 1960s, most champions were "undisputed", although the term was rarely used. 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 recognized champions from its foundation in 1920. The National Boxing Association was founded by other U.S. state bodies in 1921, and began recognising champions in 1927. Until the 1960s, both usually recognised the same lineal champion. However, disputes could arise if the champion retired or moved to a different weight class. Occasionally, the International Boxing Union 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. An early use of "undisputed" appears in a New York Times preview of the 1941 fight.
The growing popularity of boxing outside of the USA led to creation of various boxing organizations, each strengthening their influence and having their own champion. This resulted in a growing number of boxers claiming to be legitimate champions. The disruption in boxing was solved after the World War II when the World Championship Committee was created with NBA as its unanimous authority. The committee, however, was disbanded in 1955 when NBA, along with its new members left WCC citing lack of control over the organisation. The NBA's voting scheme guaranteed one vote for each state commission as well as one vote for each foreign country. On August 23, 1962, the NBA officially became the World Boxing Association and moved their headquarters to Panama City, Panama.
A year later NYSAC along with European Boxing Union and BBBofC supported creation of the World Boxing Council. WBC was officially established on February 14, 1963, in Mexico City, Mexico by 11 countries that were invited by the President of Mexico Adolfo López Mateos to form an international organization to unify all commissions of the world to control the expansion of boxing. The reason for the move were concerns about WBA's alleged lack of desire to support professional boxing outside of the USA.
In April 1983, members of United States Boxing Association along with Robert W. Lee voted to expand the organisation and form the USBA-International. The organization later changed the name to International Boxing Federation. The inaugural IBF heavyweight champion was Larry Holmes, who relinquished the WBC title to accept IBF's recognition, thus helping the newly formed organization to establish its legitimacy. The fragmentation of titles was thus increased. After some negotiations, the heavyweight title was unified in the heavyweight unification series, a series of coordinated bouts in 1986 and 1987, with Mike Tyson emerging as the first undisputed champion since Leon Spinks in 1978. The title was split again in 1992 when Riddick Bowe forfeited the WBC title.
Another major sanctioning body, the World Boxing Organisation, was established in 1988 in San Juan, Puerto Rico by a group of local businessmen. At the beginnings, when most of the challengers for WBA, WBC and IBF titles were Americans, WBO had a wider variety of countries, mainly European, represented in title bouts. Before the Klitschko Era, the United Kingdom tied the United States for most wins in WBO heavyweight title fights with eight. By 2001, the WBA was giving the same recognition to WBO champions as to WBA, WBC and IBF champions. In 2004, the WBC began naming WBO champions on its ranking listings. The IBF did not recognise the WBO in May 2006, but was doing so by February 2007. Conversely, the WBO explicitly recognises the other three sanctioning bodies.
Until around 2007, many considered it sufficient to hold the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles. 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 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 competed awarded The Ring championship title in 2002. However, two of those belts 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 his first loss in October 2003. 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."
Five months after Lennox Lewis unified the WBA, WBC, and IBF 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. Nevertheless, he was still described as "undisputed champion" by some reports.
After Joe Calzaghe's super middleweight victory over Mikkel Kessler in November 2007, he was frequently described as "undisputed champion". Others disputed this, because although he held the WBA, WBC, and WBO belts, he had vacated his IBF title in November 2006 for choosing to face Peter Manfredo Jr. as his next opponent instead of mandatory challenger Robert Stieglitz.
Unified championship
The unified champion is defined as a boxer that holds at least two world championships of major sanctioning bodies in their respective division. Around 2004, the World Boxing Association recognized three different types: the unified champion, the undisputed champion and the super champion. The rules required only one unified/undisputed/super champion per weight class and the purse in the bid would be distributed in a 65/35 ratio in favor of the unified champion. However, along with the changes to "super" status, the term "undisputed" was dropped completely.Current unified champions
| Weight class | Champion | Recognition | Consec. defenses | Reign began |
| Minimumweight | ||||
| Light flyweight | ||||
| Flyweight | ||||
| Super flyweight | ||||
| Bantamweight |  Naoya Inoue | WBA, IBF | 0 | May 18, 2019 |
| Super bantamweight |  Murodjon Akhmadaliev | WBA, IBF | 0 | January 30, 2020 |
| Featherweight | ||||
| Super featherweight | ||||
| Lightweight |  Vasyl Lomachenko | WBA, WBO | 3 | December 8, 2018 |
| Super lightweight |  José Ramírez | WBC, WBO | 0 | July 27, 2019 |
| Super lightweight |  Josh Taylor | WBA, IBF | 0 | October 26, 2019 |
| Welterweight | Errol Spence Jr. | WBC, IBF | 0 | Sep 28, 2019 |
| Super welterweight |  Jeison Rosario | WBA, IBF | 0 | January 18, 2020 |
| Middleweight | ||||
| Super middleweight | ||||
| Light heavyweight |  Artur Beterbiev | WBC, IBF | 0 | Oct 18, 2019 |
| Cruiserweight | ||||
| Heavyweight | Anthony Joshua | WBA, IBF, WBO | 0 | December 7, 2019 |
Most wins in unified championship bouts
Keys:| Name | Title recognition | Division | Title bout wins | |
| 1. | Wladimir Klitschko | WBA, WBO, IBF | Heavyweight | 15 |
| 2. |  José Nápoles | WBA, WBC | Welterweight | 14 |
| 2. | Muhammad Ali | WBA, WBC | Heavyweight | 14 |
| 4. | Marvin Hagler | WBA, WBC, IBF | Middleweight | 13 |
| 5. |  Carlos Monzón | WBA, WBC | Middleweight | 12 |
| 5. | Roy Jones Jr. | WBA, WBC, IBF | Light heavyweight | 12 |
| 7. | Evander Holyfield | WBA, WBC, IBF | Heavyweight Cruiserweight | 11 |
| 8. | Bob Foster | WBA, WBC | Light heavyweight | 10 |
| 8. | Carlos Ortiz | WBA, WBC | Lightweight | 10 |
| 10. | Bernard Hopkins | WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF | Light heavyweight Middleweight | 9 |
| 10. | Mike Tyson | WBA, WBC, IBF | Heavyweight | 9 |
| 12. |  Emile Griffith | WBA, WBC | Middleweight Welterweight | 8 |
| 12. |  Nino Benvenuti | WBA, WBC | Middleweight Light middleweight | 8 |
| 12. |  Vicente Saldivar | WBA, WBC | Featherweight | 8 |
| 15. | Pernell Whitaker | WBA, WBC, IBF | Lightweight | 7 |
| 16. | Lennox Lewis | WBA, WBC, IBF | Heavyweight | 6 |
| 16. | Juan Manuel Márquez | WBA, WBO, IBF | Super featherweight Featherweight | 6 |
| 16. |  Gabriel Elorde | WBA, WBC | Super featherweight | 6 |
| 16. | Rubén Olivares | WBA, WBC | Bantamweight | 6 |
| 20. | Floyd Mayweather Jr. | WBA, WBC | Light middleweight Welterweight | 5 |
| 20. |  Dick Tiger | WBA, WBC | Light heavyweight Middleweight | 5 |
| 20. | Sergey Kovalev | WBA, WBO, IBF | Light heavyweight | 5 |
| 20. |  Gennady Golovkin | WBA, WBC, IBF | Middleweight | 5 |
| 20. |  Fighting Harada | WBA, WBC | Bantamweight | 5 |
| 20. | Joe Frazier | WBA, WBC | Heavyweight | 5 |
| 20. |  Kostya Tszyu | WBA, WBC | Light welterweight | 5 |
| 20. |  Sven Ottke | WBA, IBF | Super middleweight | 5 |
| 20. | Terry Norris | WBC, IBF | Light middleweight | 5 |
| 29. | Andre Ward | WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF | Light heavyweight Super middleweight | 4 |
| 29. | Julio César Chávez | WBA, WBC, IBF | Light welterweight Lightweight | 4 |
| 29. | Terence Crawford | WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF | Light welterweight | 4 |
| 29. |  Vic Darchinyan | WBA, WBC, IBF | Super Flyweight | 4 |
| 29. | George Foreman | WBA, WBC, IBF | Heavyweight | 4 |
| 29. | Guillermo Rigondeaux | WBA, WBO | Super bantamweight | 4 |
| 29. | Humberto González | WBC, IBF | Light Flyweight | 4 |
| 29. | Naseem Hamed | WBC, IBF | Featherweight | 4 |
| 29. | Anthony Joshua | WBA, IBF, WBO | Heavyweight | 4 |
Most consecutive defenses of unified title
Keys:| Name | Title recognition | Division | Consec. defenses | |
| 1. | Wladimir Klitschko | WBA, WBO, IBF | Heavyweight | 14 |
| 2. | Marvin Hagler | WBA, WBC, IBF | Middleweight | 12 |
| 3. | Muhammad Ali | WBA, WBC | Heavyweight | 10 |
| 3. | Roy Jones Jr. | WBA, WBC, IBF | Light heavyweight | 10 |
| 5. | Carlos Monzón | WBA, WBC | Middleweight | 9 |
| 6. | Mike Tyson | WBA, WBC, IBF | Heavyweight | 8 |
| 7. | Bernard Hopkins | WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF | Middleweight | 7 |
| 7. | Vicente Saldivar | WBA, WBC | Featherweight | 7 |
| 9. | José Nápoles | WBA, WBC | Welterweight | 6 |
| 9. | Pernell Whitaker | WBA, WBC, IBF | Lightweight | 6 |
| 11. | Bob Foster | WBA, WBC | Light heavyweight | 5 |
| 11. | Gennady Golovkin | WBA, WBC, IBF | Middleweight | 5 |
| 11. | Carlos Ortiz | WBA, WBC | Lightweight | 5 |
| 11. | Gabriel Elorde | WBA, WBC | Super featherweight | 5 |
| 15. | Nino Benvenuti | WBA, WBC | Middleweight | 4 |
| 15. | Sergey Kovalev | WBA, WBO, IBF | Light heavyweight | 4 |
| 15. | Fighting Harada | WBA, WBC | Bantamweight | 4 |
| 15. | Joe Frazier | WBA, WBC | Heavyweight | 4 |
| 15. | Kostya Tszyu | WBA, WBC | Light welterweight | 4 |
| 15. | Sven Ottke | WBA, IBF | Super middleweight | 4 |
| 15. | Terry Norris | WBC, IBF | Light middleweight | 4 |
| 22. | Floyd Mayweather Jr. | WBA, WBC | Welterweight | 3 |
| 22. | Evander Holyfield | WBA, WBC, IBF | Heavyweight | 3 |
| 22. | Terence Crawford | WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF | Light welterweight | 3 |
| 22. | Humberto González | WBC, IBF | Light Flyweight | 3 |
| 22. | Juan Manuel Márquez | WBA, IBF | Featherweight | 3 |
| 22. | Vic Darchinyan | WBA, WBC, IBF | Super Flyweight | 3 |
| 22. | Lennox Lewis | WBC, IBF | Heavyweight | 3 |
| 22. | Guillermo Rigondeaux | WBA, WBO | Super bantamweight | 3 |
| 22. | Anthony Joshua | WBA, IBF, WBO | Heavyweight | 3 |
Unification series
Tournaments have been arranged to unify the championships in a weight class.- The HBO Heavyweight Boxing Series, held in 1986–88, crowned Mike Tyson as the undisputed heavyweight champion.
- World Boxing Super Series, held since 2017, produced Oleksandr Usyk as the undisputed cruiserweight champion.