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).
Thomas Hearns is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1977 to 2006. Nicknamed the "Motor City Cobra", and more famously "The Hitman", Hearns's tall, slender build and oversized arms and shoulders allowed him to move up over fifty pounds in his career and become the first boxer in history to win world titles in five weight divisions: welterweight, light middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.
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.
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
Silvio Rafael Gámez, better known as Leo Gámez, is a Venezuelan former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. He is the first boxer in history to win world titles in the four lightest weight divisions, having held the WBA minimumweight title from 1989 to 1990, the WBA light flyweight title from 1993 to 1995, the WBA flyweight title in 1999, and the WBA super flyweight title from 2000 to 2001.
Mini flyweight, also known as strawweight, minimumweight or super atomweight, is a weight class in combat sports.
In boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is the boxer who simultaneously holds world sanctioning organisations recognized major by each other and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. There are currently four major sanctioning bodies: WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO. There were many undisputed champions before the number of major sanctioning bodies recognizing each other increased to four in 2007, but there have only been 18 boxers to hold all four titles simultaneously.
Sirimongkol Singmanasak is a Thai professional boxer, bare-knuckle boxer and kickboxer. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBC bantamweight title in 1997 and the WBC super-featherweight title from 2002 to 2003. His other names were Sirimongkol Nakhon Thong Park View, Sirimongkol Singwancha, Sirimongkol Nakornloung, and Sirimongkhon Iamthuam.
Roberto Garcia Cortez is a Mexican-American former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2001, and held the IBF junior lightweight title from 1998 to 1999. He has since worked as a boxing trainer, and was voted Trainer of the Year by The Ring magazine in 2011, and by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2012. He is the older brother of professional boxer Mikey Garcia, who was a world champion in four weight classes.
In certain sports, when a sportsman wins three crowns, titles, medals, belts or other distinctions, the athlete is called a triple champion.
In different sports an athlete who wins five crowns, titles, medals, belts, or other distinctions is called a Quintuple Champion.
In combat sports where champions are decided by a challenge, the lineal championship in a weight class represents an intangible world title initially held by the victor of a bout between top contenders in the division, as commonly interpreted. An alternative, less mainstream perspective suggests that vacancies in divisional championships can only be filled by an undisputed champion. A fighter who defeats the reigning champion in a match within that weight class becomes the next lineal champion. In professional boxing, the informal term for the lineal champion is "the man who beat the man."
In different sports when a sportsman wins seven crowns, titles, medals, belts or another distinctions is called a Septuple Champion.
An octuple champion is a boxer who has won major world titles in eight different weight classes. Manny Pacquiao is the only boxer in history to have won twelve major world titles in eight different weight divisions.
The history of boxing in the Philippines is the history of boxing and the evolution and progress of the sport in the Philippines. In the Philippines, boxing is one of its most popular sports, together with basketball, due to the many accolades it has brought to the country, having produced 45 major world champions, one of the most in the world. Despite not having won a gold medal in boxing, the Philippines has had multiple Olympic standouts, with 8 out of its 12 total Olympic medals coming from boxing, along with some of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport. Filipino greats like Pancho Villa and Flash Elorde are members of the two highly respected boxing hall of fames – International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) and World Boxing Hall of Fame (WBHF) thus, giving the Philippines the most number of boxing hall of fame members out of Asia.