John Ruiz is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2010, and held the WBA heavyweight title twice between 2001 and 2005. Ruiz is of Puerto Rican descent, and is the first Latino boxer to win a world heavyweight title.
The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO). The WBA awards its world championship title at the professional level. Founded in the United States in 1921 by 13 state representatives as the NBA, in 1962 it changed its name in recognition of boxing's growing popularity worldwide and began to gain other nations as members.
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and International Boxing Federation (IBF). The WBO's headquarters are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Evander Holyfield is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the undisputed champion at cruiserweight in the late 1980s and at heavyweight in the early 1990s, and was the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes in the "three belt era", a feat later surpassed by Terence Crawford, Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk, who became two-weight undisputed champions in the four-belt era. Nicknamed "the Real Deal", Holyfield is the only four-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBA, WBC, and IBF titles from 1990 to 1992, the WBA and IBF titles again from 1993 to 1994, the WBA title a third time from 1996 to 1999; the IBF title a third time from 1997 to 1999 and the WBA title for a fourth time from 2000 to 2001.
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
Virgil Eugene Hill is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1984 to 2007, and in 2015. He is a two-weight world champion, having held the WBA light heavyweight title twice, from 1987 to 1997; the IBF and lineal light heavyweight titles from 1996 to 1997; and the WBA cruiserweight title twice, from 2000 to 2002 and 2006 to 2007. As an amateur, Hill won a silver medal in the middleweight division at the 1984 Summer Olympics. In 2013, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Antonio Deon Tarver is an American former professional boxer and boxing commentator. In boxing he competed from 1997 to 2015, and held multiple light heavyweight world championships, including the WBA (Unified), WBC, IBF and Ring magazine titles, as well as the IBO light heavyweight and cruiserweight titles.
Jean-Marc Gilbert Mormeck is a French former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2014. He is a two-time unified world cruiserweight champion, having held the WBA, WBC and The Ring world titles twice between 2005 and 2007. He was the first boxer to hold unified cruiserweight title since Evander Holyfield in 1988, and the first fighter to hold The Ring cruiserweight title since Carlos De León in 1987. He was ranked by BoxRec as the world's top 10 cruiserweight from 2001 to 2005 and in 2007, and was ranked No.1 in 2003 and 2004. Mormeck also challenged for the unified world heavyweight title in 2012.
Clinton Woods is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1994 to 2009, and held the IBF light-heavyweight title from 2005 to 2008. At regional level he held the Commonwealth super-middleweight title from 1997 to 1998, the British light-heavyweight title from 1999 to 2000, and the European and Commonwealth light-heavyweight titles from 1999 to 2001.
In boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is the boxer who simultaneously holds world titles from all major organizations recognized by each other and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. There are currently four major sanctioning bodies: WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF. There were many undisputed champions before the number of major sanctioning bodies recognizing each other increased to four in 2007, but there have been only 19 boxers to hold all four titles simultaneously.
Fabrice Tiozzo is a French former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2006. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBC light-heavyweight title from 1995 to 1997, the WBA cruiserweight title from 1997 to 2000, and the WBA light-heavyweight title from 2004 to 2006. He is the younger brother of former super middleweight world champion of boxing, Christophe Tiozzo.
Iran Barkley is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1982 to 1999. He held world championships in three weight classes, including the WBC middleweight title from 1988 to 1989, the IBF super middleweight title from 1992 to 1993, and the WBA light heavyweight title in 1992. As an amateur boxer, Barkley won a bronze medal in the middleweight division at the 1982 World Championships.
Reggie Dwayne Johnson is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1984 to 2008. He is a two-weight world champion, having held the WBA middleweight title from 1992 to 1993, and the IBF light heavyweight title from 1998 to 1999.
Bruno Girard was a French professional boxer who competed in the super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, he held the WBA title in both divisions.
Nicky Piper MBE is a retired Welsh super middleweight and light heavyweight boxer from Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff. His career was at its peak in the 1990s; he became the Commonwealth Light-heavyweight champion in 1995. He was trained by Charlie Pearson and managed by Frank Warren. Since retiring from boxing, Piper has become a notable administrator in British boxing and currently works for The City Hospice as their Corporate Partnerships Manager.
Pierre Jacy Fourie was a South African boxer. He was the undefeated middle and light heavyweight South African champion and held both titles at the same time. He retired from the ring in 1977. He died on 21 June 1980, at age 36 in a motor vehicle accident at Cecil Payne Park in Roodepoort South Africa. He was the first white boxer in Apartheid South Africa to fight against a non-white opponent, American Bob Foster on 21 August 1973 in South Africa.
John Ruiz vs. Roy Jones Jr., billed as Never Take A Heavyweight Lightly, was a professional boxing match contested on March 1, 2003 for the WBA heavyweight championship. The fight took place at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV in Paradise, Nevada.
Dmitry Yuryevich Bivol is a Russian professional boxer who has held the World Boxing Association (WBA) light heavyweight title since 2017 and the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title since 2023. As an amateur, he won a gold medal at the 2013 World Combat Games in the 81 kg weight category. As of June 2024, Bivol is ranked as the world's third best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec, fourth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB), sixth by The Ring, seventh by the Boxing Writers Association of America and fourth by ESPN. He is also ranked as the second-ranked best light heavyweight by The Ring, ESPN, TBRB and BoxRec.
Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo was a professional boxing match contested for the undisputed light welterweight championship between undefeated WBC, WBO, and The Ring champion Terence Crawford, and undefeated WBA (Unified), and IBF champion Julius Indongo. The bout took place on August 19, 2017, at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. Crawford defeated Indongo via third-round KO.
