Footnotes • Won vacant championship title. • Voluntarily relinquished championship title. • Championship recognition withdrawn by sanctioning organization upon his refusal to fight an opponent of the organization's designation • In 1882, Sullivan defeated
Paddy Ryan to win the bare-knuckle championship of America. A lack of legitimate challengers elsewhere gradually resulted in Sullivan earning worldwide recognition. On August 29, 1885, he defeated
Dominick McCaffrey in a bout described as "the Marquess of Queensberry glove contest for the championship of the world." • Corbett announced his retirement from boxing in 1895, nominating Steve O'Donnell as his successor. As tradition demanded the title be won in the ring, O'Donnell was matched against
Peter Maher on November 11, 1895, at
Maspeth, New York. Maher won via first-round knockout, but the public generally didn't accept Maher and Maher himself expressed a desire to fight Corbett for the "real" title. In Maher's next bout,
Bob Fitzsimmons defeated him via first-round knockout on February 21, 1896. Fitzsimmons in turn was defeated by
Tom Sharkey of
Dundalk on December 2, 1896, in a contest billed as for the heavyweight title. Corbett announced his return to the ring shortly thereafter, at which time the championship claims of Maher, Fitzsimmons, and Sharkey were for the most part dismissed. Sharkey's title claims lapsed when he was defeated by Jeffries in May 1898. • Jeffries announced his retirement, relinquishing the title and promoting a match between
Marvin Hart and
Jack Root for the championship. Jeffries returned to the ring to challenge
Jack Johnson. • The British
National Sporting Club withdrew its recognition of Johnson as champion when he refused to defend his title against the British champion
William "Iron" Hague. The NSC matched Hague with Canadian
Sam Langford for its title on May 24, 1909. Langford won via fourth-round knockout but never pursued a championship claim. • Schmeling earned championship recognition by defeating
Jack Sharkey by controversial disqualification. The
New York State Athletic Commission withdrew its recognition of Schmeling when he refused to grant Sharkey an immediate rematch. The NYSAC would restore Schmeling to championship status on January 22, 1932, after agreeing to face Sharkey later that year. • In late 1934, the
International Boxing Union (IBU) ordered Baer to defend his title against European champion
Pierre Charles of Belgium. When Baer refused, the IBU sanctioned a bout between Charles and American
George Godfrey for their title on October 2, 1935. Godfrey won via fifteen-round decision but never pursued a championship claim. The IBU ultimately recognized Baer's successor
James J. Braddock as champion. • Two months after Louis' retirement announcement, the
International Boxing Union sanctioned a bout between British champion
Bruce Woodcock and American
Lee Savold for its version of the title. The bout was not staged until June 1950, however, due to delays caused by injuries suffered by Woodcock in an automobile accident. Meanwhile,
Ezzard Charles defeated
Jersey Joe Walcott to win the vacant
National Boxing Association championship title. Savold defeated Woodcock in four rounds to win the IBU title, while Charles gained
New York State Athletic Commission recognition and wide public acclaim as champion upon defeating former champion
Joe Louis in September 1950. On June 15, 1951, Joe Louis defeated Savold via sixth-round knockout, after which the IBU withdrew its recognition of Savold and proclaimed Ezzard Charles as champion. • Following Marciano's retirement, Patterson was matched against
Tommy "Hurricane" Jackson in a championship eliminator on June 8, 1956. Winning via controversial split decision, Patterson then faced light heavyweight titleholder
Archie Moore for the vacant title. Upon defeating Moore, Patterson fought (and defeated) Jackson a second time on July 29, 1957. • The
World Boxing Association withdrew their championship recognition of Clay (by then known as Muhammad Ali) upon agreeing to an immediate rematch against former champion
Sonny Liston, in violation of WBA rules. The newly founded
World Boxing Council and other sanctioning groups continued to recognize Ali as champion. • The
World Boxing Association,
World Boxing Council,
New York State Athletic Commission and others withdrew their championship recognition of Ali following his refusal to be inducted into the
United States Army subsequent to his conscription. • To fill its vacant championship title, the
World Boxing Association organized a single-elimination tournament involving eight of their ranked contenders (
Joe Frazier, who was ranked No. 2, declined to participate):
Oscar Bonavena,
Jimmy Ellis,
Leotis Martin,
Karl Mildenberger, two-time former champion
Floyd Patterson,
Jerry Quarry,
Thad Spencer, and former WBA champion
Ernie Terrell. In first round matches, Ellis defeated Martin, Quarry defeated Patterson, Spencer defeated Terrell, and Bonavena defeated Mildenberger. In the semi-finals, Ellis defeated Bonavena while Quarry defeated Spencer; and Ellis defeated Quarry for the championship title. Frazier, meanwhile, was matched against
Buster Mathis for a championship recognized by the
New York State Athletic Commission together with the commissions of Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Similar "world" championship recognition was bestowed upon him by the Texas Athletic Commission following a victory over Dave Zyglewicz on April 22, 1969. • Frazier defeated Ellis to unify the heavyweight championship, but did not gain World public acclaim as champion until defeating
Muhammad Ali on March 8, 1971. • In an unprecedented move, upon withdrawing its recognition of
Leon Spinks as champion, the
World Boxing Council immediately recognized
Ken Norton as champion, based on an earlier victory over
Jimmy Young. As a condition of being named champion, Norton was ordered to face the WBC's new mandatory challenger,
Larry Holmes within 120 days. • Holmes relinquished his
World Boxing Council championship and accepted championship recognition bestowed by the newly organized
International Boxing Federation. • Following its 1978 precedent, upon withdrawing championship recognition from Riddick Bowe, the
World Boxing Council immediately awarded championship recognition to
Lennox Lewis, on the basis of his victory in an October 31, 1992 "championship eliminator" over
Donovan Ruddock. • Following its withdrawal of recognition from
George Foreman, the
International Boxing Federation sanctioned a December 9, 1995, match between
Francois Botha and
Axel Schulz for its championship. Botha won the bout by split decision, but the bout result and Botha's championship title were vacated after Botha's post-fight drug test revealed he had taken illegal
anabolic steroids. A subsequent bout between Schulz and
Michael Moorer was sanctioned for the IBF championship. • Upon defeating
John Ruiz,
Roy Jones Jr. simultaneously held the
World Boxing Association's heavyweight and light heavyweight titles. At his request, the WBA suspended its rule prohibiting simultaneous title holding. It later declared Jones its "Champion in Recess," and sanctioned a December 13, 2003, bout between Ruiz and
Hasim Rahman for its "interim" championship. Ruiz won the bout. On February 20, 2004, Jones relinquished his heavyweight title to resume boxing as a light heavyweight, at which point Ruiz was elevated to full championship recognition. On April 30, 2005, Ruiz was defeated by
James Toney in a championship defense, but post-fight drug testing determined Toney had taken
Nandrolone, an
anabolic steroid. The bout's result was subsequently changed to a "no contest," whereupon the WBA reinstated Ruiz as champion. • Following repeated injuries to champion
Vitali Klitschko, the
World Boxing Council sanctioned an August 13, 2005, bout between
Hasim Rahman and
Monte Barrett for its "interim" championship. Rahman won the bout, and when Klitschko relinquished his title three months later, the WBC elevated Rahman to full championship recognition. • Following repeated injuries which prevented him from defending his title, the
World Boxing Association designated Chagaev a "Champion in Recess," sanctioning an August 30, 2008 bout between former champions
John Ruiz and
Nikolai Valuev for its primary title; a bout won by Valuev. Upon his recovery however, Chagaev opted to face
Wladimir Klitschko rather than Valuev, whereupon the WBA withdrew the "Champion in Recess" status. • The
World Boxing Association modified its championship structure, creating a new "Super Champion" status to be awarded to champions who hold multiple titles simultaneously. Now subordinated to this was the status of "World Champion," commonly referred to as the "Regular" champion. The organization then sanctioned a bout between Povetkin and former champion
Ruslan Chagaev for this "regular" title. Povetkin's reign as the WBA's "regular champion" ended upon a loss to "Super Champion"
Wladimir Klitschko, at which point the "regular" title was vacant. • Browne defeated
Ruslan Chagaev for the
World Boxing Association's "regular" championship title, but Browne subsequently tested positive for
Clenbuterol, a banned substance. Following confirmation of the positive result, the WBA withdrew its recognition of Browne's "regular" championship. • On October 29, 1877, a fight between British fighters
Tom Allen and Tompkin Gilbert at the
Sadler's Wells Theatre, London was billed as for the World heavyweight title under
Marquess of Queensberry Rules. Allen won in seven rounds. • Bryan was due to fight Mahmoud Charr on January 29, 2021, for the WBA Regular championship, but Charr was unable to attain the right visa to come to the US, where the fight was to be held. Due to the long period of inactivity, Charr was stripped of the title and Bryan fought Bermane Stiverne for the now vacant title instead. ==List of combined reigns==