From Dempsey to Usyk: The Lineage of Boxing's Undisputed World Heavyweight Champions
Some of boxing’s greatest legends have been undisputed heavyweight champions during their careers.
Iconic fighters like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson achieved this remarkable feat, while Sonny Liston, George Foreman, and Evander Holyfield also held all the titles simultaneously.
In boxing, an undisputed world champion is someone who holds all four major world title belts in their division – the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO.
Tyson Fury held the WBC belt, while Oleksandr Usyk possessed the WBA, IBF, and WBO titles before both fighters clashed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
After both boxers went the distance, Usyk won via split decision.
The scorecards read 115-112 and 114-113 in favor of the Ukrainian, while a third judge scored it 114-113 for Fury.
With his victory, Usyk took the WBC belt from Fury, adding it to his WBA, WBO, and IBF collection.
The 37-year-old remains unbeaten and is the first boxer in 25 years to be recognized as the sport’s sole heavyweight world champion.
Jack Dempsey was the first official heavyweight world champion. The hard-hitting and aggressive Dempsey became the inaugural world champion at the start of 1921 when the American National Boxing Association and the powerful New York State Athletic Commission agreed to recognize a world champion.
Known as the “Manassa Mauler,” Dempsey had a formidable right hand nicknamed “Iron Mike” and a powerful left hook called “Big Bertha.” He became the lineal world champion, a title in boxing parlance that means “Beating The Man to become The Man,” when he defeated Jess Willard in 1919. The newly minted official status helped elevate his first sanctioned defense against Frenchman Georges Carpentier into the sport’s first “million-dollar fight.” Dempsey defended his title twice more before losing twice to Gene Tunney and retiring.
The last man to hold all the belts in the division was Tyson Fury’s British compatriot, Lennox Lewis. Lewis achieved this when he defeated Evander Holyfield to add the WBA and IBF titles to his WBC belt, just before the ‘four-belt era’ began with the WBO’s recognition in 2004.
The world heavyweight title had been fragmented for seven years when Lewis faced Evander Holyfield in March 1999. The judges' scores were announced as 115-113 for Holyfield, 116-113 for Lewis, and 115-115, leading to one of boxing’s most controversial decisions.
A rematch was quickly sanctioned, and the second bout, held eight months later in November, also went the distance. This time, Lewis was awarded the victory via unanimous decision with scores of 115-113, 116-112, and 117-111.
Within a year, Lewis was stripped of his WBA title for choosing to fight Michael Grant instead of the organization's number one contender, John Ruiz. Since then, the belts have been scattered.
In total, twenty-five boxers have held all the heavyweight titles at once. The first undisputed heavyweight champion was Jack Dempsey in 1921. Dempsey’s reign lasted four years before Gene Tunney took the title, and it changed hands many times over the next two decades.
Joe Louis holds the record for the longest reign as undisputed heavyweight champion, sitting at the top of the sport for 12 years.
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