This is a list of British boxers who have won a world championship by one of the four major sanctioning organisations – the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) – as well as those awarded by The Ring. Additionally, prior to 1962, world champions were recognised by public consensus (world), and later by the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) and the National Boxing Association (NBA).
List of champions
Heavyweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Bob Fitzsimmons | World | 1897 – 1899 | 0 | [1] |
2 | Lennox Lewis | WBC | 1992 – 1994 | 3 |
3 | Michael Bentt | WBO | 1993 – 1994 | 0 |
4 | Herbie Hide | WBO | 1994 – 1995 | 0 |
5 | Frank Bruno | WBC | 1995 – 1996 | 0 |
6 | Henry Akinwande | WBO | 1996 – 1997 | 2 |
7 | Lennox Lewis (2) | WBA, WBC, IBF | 1997 – 2001 | 9 |
8 | Herbie Hide (2) | WBO | 1997 –1999 | 2 |
9 | Lennox Lewis (3) | WBC, IBF, The Ring | 2001 – 2003 | 2 |
10 | David Haye | WBA | 2009 – 2011 | 2 |
11 | Tyson Fury | WBA, IBF, WBO, The Ring | 2015 – 2016 | 0 |
12 | Anthony Joshua | WBA, IBF, WBO | 2016 – 2019 | 6 |
13 | Anthony Joshua (2) | WBA, IBF, WBO | 2019 – 2021 | 1 | [2] |
14 | Tyson Fury (2) | WBC, The Ring | 2020 – 2022 | 2 | [3] |
Cruiserweight
Light-heavyweight
Super-middleweight
Middleweight
Light-middleweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Maurice Hope | WBC | 1979 – 1981 | 3 | [18] |
2 | Paul Jones | WBO | 1995 – 1996 | 0 | [19] |
3 | Liam Smith | WBO | 2015 – 2016 | 2 | [20] |
Welterweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Matt Wells | World | 1914 – 1915 | 0 | [21] |
2 | John H. Stracey | WBC, The Ring | 1975 – 1976 | 1 | [22] |
3 | Lloyd Honeyghan | WBC, IBF, The Ring | 1986 – 1987 | 3 | [23] |
4 | Lloyd Honeyghan (2) | WBC, The Ring | 1988 – 1989 | 1 |
5 | Ricky Hatton | WBA | 2006 | 0 |
6 | Kell Brook | IBF | 2014 – 2017 | 3 | [24] |
Light-welterweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Jack Kid Berg | NBA, The Ring | 1930 – 1931 | 14 | [25] |
2 | Terry Marsh | IBF | 1987 | 1 | [26] |
3 | Ricky Hatton | WBA, IBF, The Ring | 2005 – 2009 | 5 | [27] |
4 | Junior Witter | WBC | 2006 – 2008 | 2 | [28] |
5 | Gavin Rees | WBA | 2007 – 2008 | 0 | [29] |
6 | Amir Khan | WBA, IBF | 2009 – 2011 | 5 | [30] |
7 | Ricky Burns | WBA | 2016 – 2017 | 1 | [31] |
8 | Josh Taylor | WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring | 2019 – 2023 | 3 | [32] |
Lightweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Freddie Welsh | World | 1914 – 1917 | – | [33] |
2 | Ken Buchanan | WBA, WBC, The Ring, NYSAC | 1970 – 1972 | 2 | [34] |
3 | Jim Watt | WBC, The Ring | 1979 – 1981 | 4 | [35] |
4 | Ricky Burns | WBO | 2012 – 2014 | 4 | [36] |
5 | Anthony Crolla | WBA | 2016 – 2017 | 1 | [37] |
6 | Terry Flanagan | WBO | 2015 – 2017 | 5 | [38] |
Super-featherweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Barry Jones | WBO | 1997 | 0 | [39] |
2 | Alex Arthur | WBO | 2008 | 0 | [40] |
3 | Nicky Cook | WBO | 2008 – 2009 | 0 | [41] |
4 | Ricky Burns | WBO | 2011 – 2012 | 2 | [36] |
Featherweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Ben Jordan | World | 1899 | – | [42] |
2 | Howard Winstone | WBC | 1968 | 0 | [43] |
3 | Paul Hodgkinson | WBC | 1991 – 1993 | 3 | [44] |
4 | Colin McMillan | WBO | 1992 | 0 | [45] |
5 | Steve Robinson | IBF | 1993 – 1995 | 7 | [46] |
6 | Naseem Hamed | WBC, IBF, WBO | 1995 – 2000 | 15 | [47] |
7 | Paul Ingle | IBF | 1999 – 2000 | 1 | [48] |
8 | Scott Harrison | WBO | 2002 – 2003 | 1 | [49] |
9 | Scott Harrison (2) | WBO | 2003 – 2005 | 6 |
10 | Lee Selby | IBF | 2015 – 2018 | 4 | [50] |
11 | Carl Frampton | WBA | 2016 – 2017 | 0 | [51] |
12 | Josh Warrington | IBF | 2018 – 2021 | 3 | [52] |
13 | Leigh Wood | WBA | 2021 - 2023 | 2 | [84] |
Super-bantamweight
Bantamweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Joe Bowker | World | 1904 – 1905 | 1 | [57] |
2 | Duke McKenzie | WBO | 1991 – 1992 | 2 | [53] |
3 | Robbie Regan | WBO | 1996 | 0 | [58] |
4 | Jamie McDonnell | IBF | 2013 | 0 | [59] |
5 | Stuart Hall | IBF | 2013 – 2014 | 1 | [60] |
6 | Paul Butler | IBF | 2014 | 0 | [61] |
7 | Jamie McDonnell (2) | WBA | 2014 – 2018 | 6 | [59] |
8 | Lee Haskins | IBF | 2015 – 2017 | 2 | [62] |
9 | Ryan Burnett | WBA, IBF | 2017 – 2018 | 2 | [63] |
Super-flyweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Kal Yafai | WBA | 2016 – 2020 | 4 | [64] |
Flyweight
Light-flyweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Paul Weir | WBO | 1994 – 1995 | 1 | [83] |
Mini-flyweight
No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
1 | Paul Weir | WBO | 1993 | 1 | [83] |
See also
References
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