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.
Boxing in the 1980s was filled with important fights, events and personalities that shaped the sport. Boxing in the 1980s was shaped by many different situations, such as the continuous corporate battles between the different world sanctioning organizations, the void left by Muhammad Ali as the sport's ambassador and consequent search for a new boxing hero, the continuous presence of Don King as the sport's most famous promoter, the surge of rival promoters as Bob Arum, Butch Lewis and Murad Muhammad, and major rule changes. In 1986, Mike Tyson emerged as a fresh new face in the heavyweight division, which had seen a decline in champion quality level after Ali's retirement and, later on, after longtime WBC ruler Larry Holmes' prime. In addition, the IBF and WBO began operating.
Julio César Chávez Carrasco, best known as Julio César Chávez Jr., is a Mexican professional boxer who held the WBC middleweight title from 2011 to 2012. He is the son of retired boxing legend Julio César Chávez and older brother of Omar Chávez.
Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports.
Mikkel Kessler is a Danish former professional boxer who competed from 1998 to 2013. He held multiple super-middleweight world championships, including the WBA title three times between 2004 and 2013, and the WBC title twice between 2006 and 2010.
Avetik Abrahamyan, best known as Arthur Abraham, is an Armenian-German former professional boxer who competed from 2003 to 2018. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the IBF middleweight title from 2005 to 2009, and the WBO super-middleweight title twice between 2012 and 2016.
Joachim Alcine is a Haitian-Canadian professional boxer fighting out of Montreal, Quebec, where he now resides. He is a former WBA light middleweight champion.
Alfredo Angulo López is a Mexican professional boxer who held the WBO interim light middleweight title from 2009 to 2010. As an amateur he represented Mexico at the 2004 Olympics, reaching the first round of the middleweight bracket. Nicknamed "El Perro", Angulo was a highly regarded light middleweight prospect in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and is particularly known for his relentless pressure fighting style and formidable punching power.
Erislandy Lara Santoya is a Cuban-American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA (Regular) middleweight title since 2021. 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.
Billy Joe Saunders is a British professional boxer. He is the first fighter from the Travelling community to win world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title from 2015 to 2018 and the WBO super-middleweight title from 2019 to 2021. At regional level he held the European, British, and Commonwealth middleweight titles between 2012 and 2015. Saunders represented Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics as an amateur, reaching the second round of the welterweight bracket. In the same year, he won gold at the EU Championships.
Santos Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez Barragán is a Mexican professional boxer. He has won multiple world championships in four weight classes from light middleweight to light heavyweight, including unified titles in three of those weight classes and lineal titles in two. Álvarez is the first and only boxer in history to become undisputed champion at super middleweight, having held the WBA (Super), WBC and Ring magazine titles since 2020, and the IBF and WBO titles since 2021.
Rogelio Medina is a Mexican professional boxer who challenged for the IBF super middleweight title in 2016.
Gilberto Ramírez Sánchez is a Mexican professional boxer. He held the WBO super middleweight title from 2016 to 2019, and is the first boxer from Mexico to win a major world title in that weight class. As of November 2022, Ramírez is ranked as the world's third best active light heavyweight by The Ring magazine, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and BoxRec.
Alfonso López III is an American professional boxer of Mexican descent. López fights out of Houston, Texas raised out of Cut & Shoot, Texas. He currently holds the WBC-NABF bridgerweight title in 2021-22. He has held the WBC-NABF light heavyweight title since 2019, also former WBC-Continental Americas super middleweight title in (2010) and the WBO-NABO light heavyweight title in (2019). As of September 1, 2022, López is ranked 6th in the World in the WBC rankings.
Hanna Gabriels Valle, known as Hanna Gabriels, is a Costa Rican professional boxer. She has held world championships in four weight classes, having held the WBA female light middleweight title since 2016; the WBA female light heavyweight and WBC female heavyweight titles since April 2021; the WBO welterweight title in 2009; and the WBO light middleweight title twice between 2010 and 2018. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's third best active light middleweight by The Ring and BoxRec.
Jesse Hart is an American professional boxer who has challenged twice for the WBO super middleweight title; firstly in 2017 and again in 2018.
Dmitry Yuryevich Bivol is a Russian professional boxer who has held the WBA light heavyweight title since 2017. As an amateur, he won a gold medal at the 2013 World Combat Games in the 81 kg weight category. As of November 2022, Bivol is ranked as the world's third best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec, fifth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (TBRB), sixth by The Ring, and seventh by the Boxing Writers Association of America and ESPN. He is also ranked as the best light heavyweight by The Ring, ESPN, and BoxRec, and second by TBRB.
Marie-Ève Dicaire is a Canadian professional boxer who is a 2-time IBF female light middleweight champion from 2018 to March 2021 and from December 2021 to November 2022. In 2013, she was named athlete of the year by Boxing Quebec. As of September 2020, she is ranked as the world's second best active female light middleweight by The Ring and BoxRec.
Anthony David Benavidez is an American professional boxer. He is a two-time WBC super middleweight champion, having held the title from 2017 to 2018 and again from 2019 to 2020. Claiming his first belt at 21 years, eight months, and 22 days old, Benavidez holds the record as the youngest super middleweight title holder in history, he is ranked second by The Ring second by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and fourth by BoxRec.
Edgar Luis BerlangaJr. is an American professional boxer.
Edgar Berlanga 
Carlos Galvan
Hotel Catalonia Malecon Center, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Javier Gomez Rueda
Cancha Juanito Cabello, Cidra, Puerto Rico
Reinaldo Gonzalez
Anthony Nesty sporthal, Paramaribo, Suriname
Rolando Mansilla
Zoltan Papp
Matingu Kindele
Saarlandhalle, Saarbrücken, Germany
Slavisa Simeunovic
Atatürk Spor Salonu, Tekirdağ, Turkey
Ionut Trandafir Ilie