Boxing is one of the most widely practised and oldest combat sports in the world. While the number of professional boxers is constantly rising, there are some facts listed below that you need to know.
Do you know who the world's greatest boxers are? Do you know how a federation works or what exactly a world title is? Here's everything you need to know about boxing culture.
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Different types of boxing matches
Not every fight in boxing is the same, which is why some capture the public's attentionn where others do not. Here's an idea of the different matcups you can find:
- Champion vs mandatory challenger: This is where a champion of a governing body is ordered to fight their No.1 challenger in their world rankings
- Unified world title fights: This is when two world champions, such as a WBO world champion faces an IBO world champion, with the winner walking away with two or more world titles to become a unified world champion
- Undisputed world title fights: This is the highest possible echelon a boxer can reach when they enter into a fight with all five goverining body's world titles on the line, maning that the winner becomes the undisputed champion of their weight, with no other champions left other than that single one
- Crossover fights: This is when boxers from different sports or backgrounds clash in a ring, such as YouTuber KSI facing Tommy Fury, or Tyson Fury fighting against MMA champion Francis Ngannou
Some of history's best-known boxing matches are those between ring legends such as:
- Muhammed Ali vs Joe Frazier I in 1974
- Muhammad Ali vs Richard Dunn, which marked Ali's last knockout victory in 1976
- "Sugar" Ray Leonard in his fight against Roberto Duran, which allowed Sugar to regain his welterweight belt in 1980
- "Sugar" Ray Leonard vs Marvin Hagler, who Sugar dethroned in 1987
- Marcel Cerdan vs Jake La Motta, the latter having knocked out the French champion in 1949
- Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield, a fight that became famous when Tyson bit off a part of his opponent's right ear in 1997
- Arturo Gatti vs Micky Ward, a trilogy considered to be "fight of the year" in 2002
- Mayweather vs De La Hoya, a battle between two top fighters of the sport in 2007
- Mayweather vs. McGregor, the boxer's last fight against MMA Conor McGregor in 2017
- On the women's boxing front, Laila Ali, daughter of the legendary Muhammed, won her first bout against Avril Fowler, the fight lasting just 31 seconds.
Who are the best boxers in the world?
Only a handful of boxers ever go on to leave a lasting legacy in the sport, here's just a few:
- Muhammed Ali, a true legend with 37 victories by knockout, became an authority figure in the world of combat sports
- Marcel Cerdan, the ambassador of French boxing in the USA, with 129 matches to his name
- Henry Armstrong, nicknamed "Hurricane Hank"
- Jack Dempsey, the first superstar of boxing
- "Sugar" Ray Leonard, a renowned boxer with some of the highest skills ever seen in the ring
- Julio César Chavez, a Mexican who remained unbeaten for his first 89 matches
- Joe Frazier, the great challenger to Ali
- Jack La Motta is better known under the 'The Raging Bull'
It shows that the twentieth century has seen many talented free-fighters. But the decades from 1990 to 2010 were not to be outdone, with such emblematic figures as :
- Oscar De La Hoya
- Mike Tyson
Finally, more recently, other champions have shown themselves at their best, three standouts are:
- Bernard Hopkins, the sport's oldest world champion at 46 years, 4 months, 6 days
- Floyd Mayweather, won 15 major world championships from super featherweight to super welterweight
- Anthony Joshua, ttwo-time world heavyweight champion who was able to transcend the sport in the UK
Boxing federations
In boxing there are five governing bodies which all have their own or shared world champions:
- The WBA, World Boxing Association, the oldest federation (it took over from the NBA, founded in 1921)
- The WBC World Boxing Council, undoubtedly the most publicised
- IBF International Boxing Federation, the third organisation to be formed
- The WBO, World Boxing Organization, is one of the most recent of them all
- The IBO, International Boxing Organization is an independent sanctioning body and only one to use computerized rankings in the sport
And… there is also a Ring Magazine belt, which is bestowed upon the winner when No.1 meets No.2 in the ring. This title is regarded as one of the most prestigious of all, despite only being a commemorative belt.