Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.
The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Organization (WBO).
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.
Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed between 1996 and 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and won 15 major world championships from super featherweight to light middleweight. This includes the Ring magazine title in three weight classes and the lineal championship in four weight classes. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the featherweight division at the 1996 Olympics, three U.S. Golden Gloves championships, and the U.S. national championship at featherweight.
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.
Cecilia Carmen Linda Brækhus is a Norwegian professional boxer and former kickboxer. She reigned as the undisputed female welterweight boxing champion from 2014 to 2020, and is the first woman in any weight class to hold the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles simultaneously. Brækhus is also one of only 11 boxers in history, female or male, to hold all four major world titles simultaneously. She also held the IBO title from 2016 to 2020.
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.
Hanna Gabriels Valle 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.
Claressa Maria Shields is an American professional boxer and professional mixed martial artist. She has held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the undisputed female light middleweight title since March 2021; the undisputed female middleweight title from 2019 to 2020; and the unified WBC and IBF female super middleweight titles from 2017 to 2018. Shields currently holds the record for becoming a two and three division world champion in the fewest professional fights. As of October 2022, she is ranked the world's best active female middleweight by BoxRec, as well as the best active female boxer, pound for pound, by ESPN and The Ring.
Christina Hammer is a German boxer. As a professional, she has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO female middleweight title from 2010 to 2019, becoming the youngest boxer to win a WBO world title; the WBC female middleweight title between 2016 and 2018; and the WBO female super-middleweight title in 2013. She also challenged once for the WBO female light-middleweight title in 2014 and once for the undisputed female middleweight championship against Claressa Shields in 2019.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor, billed and promoted as The Money Fight and The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History, was a professional crossover boxing match between undefeated eleven-time five-division boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and two-division mixed martial arts (MMA) world champion and, at the time, UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor. The fight took place at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, on August 26, 2017, at the light middleweight limit. It was scheduled for twelve rounds and recorded the second highest pay-per-view buy rate in history, behind Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
Marie-Ève Dicaire is a Canadian former professional boxer who is a two-time IBF female super-welterweight World champion having held the title from December 2018 to March 2021 and from December 2021 to November 2022.
Vanessa Lepage-Joanisse is a Canadian professional boxer who has held the WBC female heavyweight title since 7 March 2024.
Franchón Crews-Dezurn is an American professional boxer. She is the current World Boxing Council (WBC) Super middleweight world champion and World Boxing Association (WBA) interim world champion defeating Shadasia Green December 15, 2023. She was the undisputed world champion at super middleweight, losing to Savannah Marshall on 2 July 2023. She held the World Boxing Council (WBC) titles between 2018 and 2023; the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title between 2019 and 2023; and the World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) title between 2022 and 2023.
Elin Cederroos is a Swedish former professional boxer. She was a unified super-middleweight champion, having held the IBF female title from 2019 until April 2022 and the WBA female title from January 2020 until April 2022.
Hannah Rankin is a Scottish professional boxer who has held the WBA and IBO female super-welterweight World titles.
Femke Hermans is a Belgian professional boxer who is the current IBF and IBO female super-welterweight World champion. She also held the WBO female super-middleweight title in 2018, becoming the second Belgian woman to hold a major world championship.
Kirstie Bavington is an English professional boxer. She is a former European female welterweight champion and fought in the first-ever professional women's British title contest.
Shannon Ryan is an English professional boxer who is the WBA female super-flyweight International champion. She also challenged for the Commonwealth and inaugural British female super-flyweight titles.
