In professional boxing, an undisputed champion is a fighter who holds all the major world championship belts from the four principal sanctioning bodies: the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF), and World Boxing Organization (WBO). Achieving this status is a rare and significant accomplishment, symbolizing that the boxer is the best in their weight class without dispute.

A unified champion, on the other hand, holds two or more of the major sanctioning titles in a division.

Since 2004, there have only been nine male and nine female boxers who have held all four titles from major sanctioning bodies in the same weight class. Here are the male undisputed champions:

▪️Naoya Inoue (Bantamweight and Super Bantamweight)
▪️Devin Haney (Lightweight)
▪️Josh Taylor (Super Lightweight)
▪️Terence Crawford (Super Lightweight and Welterweight)
▪️Jermell Charlo (Super Welterweight)
▪️Jermain Taylor (Middleweight)
▪️Bernard Hopkins (Middleweight)
▪️Canelo Alvarez (Super Middleweight)
▪️Oleksandr Usyk (Cruiserweight)

The last undisputed heavyweight champion was Lennox Lewis, who achieved this status in 1999 by unifying his WBC title with Evander Holyfield's WBA and IBF titles, alongside the vacant IBO title, after two fights with Holyfield (the first ending controversially in a draw, remaining one of the most contentious verdicts in the history of the sport).

It's important to highlight that during that period, there were only three officially recognized world titles, and Vitali Klitschko held the WBO heavyweight title at the time. Moreover, various other fighters were hailed as "undisputed champions" in their weight classes around the same period.

Kostya Tszyu at junior welterweight, Cory Spinks at welterweight, Bernard Hopkins at middleweight, and Roy Jones Jr. at light heavyweight were not required to hold the WBO title to be considered undisputed champions in their respective divisions.

In the past, weight classes typically had only one world champion. However, as the sport progressed, it began to acknowledge multiple titles, eventually leading to the current era of four belts. Here's a concise timeline of these changes:

▪️1922–1963: A boxer who held both the NYSAC and NBA (WBA) world titles.
▪️1963–1983: A boxer who held both the WBA and WBC world titles.
▪️1983–2007: A boxer who held the WBA, WBC, and IBF world titles.
▪️2007–present: A boxer who holds the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO world titles.

The next undisputed champion will be determined this Saturday night, as Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk vie for all four world heavyweight titles at The Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia.

Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk will put his WBA, WBO, and IBF titles on the line against Great Britain's WBC champion Tyson Fury, aiming to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.

The World Boxing Council (WBC) has created a unique belt for the future undisputed heavyweight champion that features the flags of Great Britain and Ukraine, along with the names of the four major boxing organizations: WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF.

Share your thoughts in the comments: who do you think will emerge victorious in this fight?