Michel Soro (born 30 October 1987) is a French professional boxer. He challenged for the WBO and IBOlight middleweight titles in 2012, and the WBAinterim super welterweight title in 2017. At regional level, he held the EBU Europeanmiddleweight title, the WBO European junior middleweight title twice, and the WBA International super welterweight title. As of November 2020, Soro is ranked is the world’s eighth best active light middleweight by The Ring magazine and seventh best by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
In 2017, he challenged Brian Castaño for the interim WBA Jr. Middleweight title, losing by split decision.[1]
In his next fight, Soro bounced back with a third round stoppage against Ivan Montero. He was the aggressor from the opening bell, and managed to drop his opponent in the third round, who was not able to beat the count with 1:53 left on the clock.[2]
On 8 December 2018, Soro got an easy stoppage win over American Greg Vendetti.[3]
After that fight, Soro was scheduled to a rematch against Brian Castano. However, the fight fell through, with Castano's team alleging that Soro's team did not want to deposit Castano's purse, nor provide evidence of VADA testing.[4]
On 15 November 2019, Soro continued his dominant streak, with another one-sided victory, this time against French veteran Cedric Vitu. Soro's aggression throughout the fight culminated with a left hook to Vitu's temple in the fifth round, which sent Vitu on the canvas and forced the referee to stop the fight.[5]
Antonio Margarito Montiel is a Mexican-American former professional boxer who competed between 1994 and 2017. He held multiple welterweight world championships, including the WBO title from 2002 to 2007, the IBF title in 2008, and the WBA (Super) title from 2008 to 2009. He also challenged three times for a light middleweight world title between 2004 and 2011. Nicknamed El Tornado de Tijuana, Margarito was known for his aggressive pressure fighting style and exceptionally durable chin.
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.
Juan Manuel Márquez Méndez is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2014. He is world champion in three weight classes, having held major titles from featherweight to lightweight, including the lineal championship at lightweight.
Byron Deangelo-Tarone Mitchell is an American former professional boxer who fought from 1996 to 2012. He was the Lineal and two-time WBA super middleweight champion, winning the titles in 1999 and 2001.
Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam is a French Cameroonian professional boxer. He has held two middleweight world championships; including the WBO title in 2012 and the WBA (Regular) title in 2017, and has challenged once for a super-middleweight world title in 2019.
Erislandy Lara Santoya is a Cuban-American professional boxer who is the current WBA middleweight champion, having held the title since 2021. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes. Previously he held various versions of the WBA light middleweight title between 2014 and 2021, and the IBO light middleweight title twice between 2015 and 2021. As of May 2022, Lara is ranked as the world's fifth-best active middleweight by BoxRec.
Jürgen Brähmer is a German professional boxer. He is a two-time former light-heavyweight world champion, having held the WBO title from 2009 to 2011, and the WBA (Regular) title from 2013 to 2016. Additionally, he has held the European light-heavyweight title twice, in 2009 and 2013.
Boxing in the 2010s includes notable events about boxing which occurred between 2010 and 2019. The decade saw high intensity action in the welterweight division. The match between veterans Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao broke PPV records. The broadcast of the fight in the Philippines was watched by nearly half the country's households. Mayweather retired at a record 50-0-0 while Pacquiao became the first eight division champion. The middleweight division saw immense action in the later years of the decade. After a draw in 2017, Canelo Alvarez ended Gennady Golovkin's long reign in 2018. The heavyweight division was dominated by Klitschko brothers before Wladimir's loss to Tyson Fury in 2015. Other talents that emerged were Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksander Usyk.
Gabriel Rosado is an American former professional boxer. He challenged twice for a middleweight world title in 2013. Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rosado is part of the city's large Puerto Rican community. Renowned for his toughness and willingness to face elite opposition, Rosado had competed in the light middleweight, middleweight and super middleweight divisions, winning a variety of regional championships along the way.
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Janibek Alimkhanuly is a Kazakh professional boxer and unified middleweight champion who has held the WBO title since 2022, and the IBF title since October 2023. As an amateur, he won gold medals at the 2013 World Championships, 2013 Asian Championships and 2014 Asian Games. He also represented Kazakhstan at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the middleweight division, losing in the quarter-finals. He won the WBO Interim middleweight title on May 21, 2022, before being elevated to full champion on August 30, 2022, and he then won the IBF title on October 14, 2023.
Liam Mark Smith is a British professional boxer. He held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) light-middleweight title from 2015 to 2016. At regional level, he has held multiple light-middleweight championships, including the British and Commonwealth titles between 2012 and 2015. Smith is the younger brother of Paul Smith and Stephen Smith, and the older brother of Callum Smith; all of whom are professional boxers.
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Israil Madrimov is a professional boxer from Uzbekistan, who has held WBA super welterweight title since March 2024. As an amateur, he won a silver medal in the welterweight division at the 2014 Asian Games and gold in the middleweight division at the 2018 edition.
Jermell Charlo vs. Brian Castaño was a unification professional boxing match contested between WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and The Ring light middleweight champion, Jermell Charlo, and WBO light middleweight champion, Brian Castaño, with the winner set to become the first undisputed light middleweight champion since Winky Wright in 2004 and the first in the four-belt era. The bout took place on July 17, 2021 that ended in a split draw.
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