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Where do our world champions come from?

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By Paul Upham: Many people say that the USA is the home of boxing, but looking through the lists of world champions in each division, it is very pleasing to see so many countries represented.
In the four major sanctioning bodies (WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO), there are 15 boxers from the USA holding 19 world title belts out of a possible 68 from the 17 divisions. The multiple belt holders from the USA are undisputed WBC/WBA/IBF light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. and undisputed WBC/WBA/IBF middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins.

For the rest of the world, there are 42 boxers holding 45 world title belts, with WBC/IBF heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and undisputed WBC/WBA/IBF junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu the only boxers holding more than one belt.

Currently there are four vacant belts, the WBO at junior middleweight, IBF and WBO at welterweight and the WBA minimumweight.

Even though the USA holds nearly 28% of the world title belts available, that still leaves 42 boxers from 21 other countries holding 45 world title belts.

The full list of countries with a world champion is as follows. Countries with multiple belt holders have the total belts in brackets.

USA 15 world champions (19 belts) – Virgil Hill, Roy Jones Jr, Byron Mitchell,
Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Winky Wright, Shane Mosley, Demarcus Corley, Paul Spadafora, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Steve Forbes, Derrick Gainer, Willie Jorrin, Tim Austin,

Mexico 7 - Jose Luis Castillo, Erik Morales, Manuel Medina, Fernando Montiel, Ricardo Lopez, Jose Antonio Aguirre, Roberto Leyva

Great Britain 3 (4 belts) - Lennox Lewis, Johnny Nelson, Joe Calzaghe

Germany 3 - Wladimir Klitschko, Dariusz Michalczewski, Sven Ottke
Panama 3 - Agapito Sanchez, Mauricio Martinez, Pedro Alcazar
Puerto Rico 3 - John Ruiz, Eric Morel, Nelson Dieppa
Venezuela 3 - Yober Ortega, Eidy Moya, Felix Machado
Australia 1 (3 belts) - Kostya Tszyu

Argentina 2 - Raul Balbi, Julio Pablo Chacon
Colombia 2 - Irene Pacheco, Kermin Guardia
Cuba 2 - Juan Carlos Gomez, Joel Casamayor
Japan 2 - Masanori Tokuyama, Celes Kobayashi
Thailand 2 - Veeraphol Sahaprom, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam

Brazil 1 - Acelino Freitas
Canada 1 - Eric Lucas
Guyana 1 - Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis
Kazakhstan 1 - Vassiliy Jirov
Nicaragua 1 - Rosendo Alvarez
Philippines 1 - Manny Pacquiao
South Korea 1 - Yosam Choi
Sweden 1 - Armand Krajnc
Uzbekistan 1 – Artur Grigorian

With 68 world title belts on the planet just from the four main bodies, is it any wonder that causal boxing fans get confused as to who is the real world champion?

The proliferation of world sanctioning bodies and boxers calling themselves world champions has been bad for the sport in many ways. However, with twenty-two countries around the world having at least one boxer with a world championship belt, there are many, many millions of people with a reason to take an interest in the sport.


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
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