Belts and sanctioning bodies
Why boxing has four world champions per division, and what undisputed means.
Boxing · 4 min
Four world titles
In MMA, each promotion crowns its own champions. In boxing, no promoter owns the titles: four sanctioning bodies each crown their own world champion in every division, whoever promotes the fight:
- WBA, World Boxing Association (started in 1921 as the National Boxing Association)
- WBC, World Boxing Council (1963)
- IBF, International Boxing Federation (1983)
- WBO, World Boxing Organization (1988)
Each body ranks contenders and orders its champion to face a mandatory challenger from time to time. A champion who won't can be stripped.
Unified and undisputed
Tap the belts to see what a boxer holding them would be called.
Extra titles
Bodies sometimes add titles of their own: "interim" champions while a champion is out, and the WBA has had "super" and "regular" champions in the same division. The Ring magazine also awards its own championship. That's why fans talk about the "real" champion, and why undisputed fights are such big events.