List of British world boxing champions

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

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Heavyweight

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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]
15 Daniel Dubois IBF 2024 – present 1 [4]

Cruiserweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Glenn McCrory IBF 1989 – 1990 1 [5]
2 Carl Thompson WBO 1997 – 1999 2
3 Johnny Nelson WBO 1999 – 2006 13
4 Enzo Maccarinelli WBO 2006 – 2008 4
5 David Haye WBA, WBC, WBO, The Ring 2007 – 2008 1
6 Tony Bellew WBC 2016 1
7 Lawrence Okolie WBO 2021 – 2023 3
8 Chris Billam-Smith WBO 2023 – present 0

Light-heavyweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Bob Fitzsimmons World 1903 – 1905 0 [6]
2 Freddie Mills NYSAC, NBA, The Ring 1948 – 1950 0 [7]
3 John Conteh WBC 1974 – 1977 3
4 Dennis Andries WBC 1986 – 1987 1
5 Dennis Andries (2) WBC 1989 0
6 Dennis Andries (3) WBC 1990 – 1991 2
7 Clinton Woods IBF 2005 – 2007 7
8 Joe Calzaghe The Ring 2008 – 2009 1
9 Nathan Cleverly WBO 2011 – 2013 5
10 Nathan Cleverly (2) WBA 2016 – 2017 0

Super-middleweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Murray Sutherland IBF 1984 0 [8]
2 Nigel Benn WBO 1990 1
3 Chris Eubank WBO 1991 – 1995 14
4 Nigel Benn (2) WBC 1992 – 1996 9
5 Robin Reid WBC 1996 – 1997 3
6 Joe Calzaghe WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring 1997 – 2008 21
7 Richie Woodhall WBC 1998 – 1999 2
8 Glenn Catley WBC 2000 0
9 Carl Froch WBC 2008 – 2010 2
10 Carl Froch (2) WBC 2010 – 2011 1
11 Brian Magee WBA 2012 0 [9]
12 Carl Froch (3) WBA, IBF 2012 – 2014 4 [8]
13 James DeGale IBF 2015 – 2017 3
14 George Groves WBA 2017 – 2018 2
15 Rocky Fielding WBA 2018 0 [10]
16 James DeGale (2) IBF 2018 0 [8]
17 Callum Smith WBA, The Ring 2018 – 2020 3
18 Billy Joe Saunders WBO 2019 – 2021 2

Middleweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Bob Fitzsimmons World 1891 – 1894 2 [6]
2 Randy Turpin NYSAC, NBA, The Ring 1951 0 [11]
3 Terry Downes NYSAC, The Ring 1961 0 [12]
4 Alan Minter WBA, WBC, The Ring 1980 1 [13]
5 Nigel Benn WBO 1990 1 [14]
6 Chris Eubank WBO 1990 – 1991 3
7 Chris Pyatt WBO 1993 – 1994 2 [15]
8 Jason Matthews WBO 1999 0 [16]
9 Darren Barker IBF 2013 0 [17]
10 Billy Joe Saunders WBO 2015 – 2018 3 [18]

Light-middleweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Maurice Hope WBC 1979 – 1981 3 [19]
2 Paul Jones WBO 1995 – 1996 0 [20]
3 Liam Smith WBO 2015 – 2016 2 [21]

Welterweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Matt Wells World 1914 – 1915 0 [22]
2 John H. Stracey WBC, The Ring 1975 – 1976 1 [23]
3 Lloyd Honeyghan WBC, IBF, The Ring 1986 – 1987 3 [24]
4 Lloyd Honeyghan (2) WBC, The Ring 1988 – 1989 1
5 Ricky Hatton WBA 2006 0
6 Kell Brook IBF 2014 – 2017 3 [25]

Light-welterweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Jack Kid Berg NBA, The Ring 1930 – 1931 14 [26]
2 Terry Marsh IBF 1987 1 [27]
3 Ricky Hatton WBA, IBF, The Ring 2005 – 2009 5 [28]
4 Junior Witter WBC 2006 – 2008 2 [29]
5 Gavin Rees WBA 2007 – 2008 0 [30]
6 Amir Khan WBA, IBF 2009 – 2011 5 [31]
7 Ricky Burns WBA 2016 – 2017 1 [32]
8 Josh Taylor WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring 2019 – 2023 3 [33]

Lightweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Freddie Welsh World 1914 – 1917 [34]
2 Ken Buchanan WBA, WBC, The Ring, NYSAC 1970 – 1972 2 [35]
3 Jim Watt WBC, The Ring 1979 – 1981 4 [36]
4 Ricky Burns WBO 2012 – 2014 4 [37]
5 Anthony Crolla WBA 2016 – 2017 1 [38]
6 Terry Flanagan WBO 2015 – 2017 5 [39]

Super-featherweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Barry Jones WBO 1997 0 [40]
2 Alex Arthur WBO 2008 0 [41]
3 Nicky Cook WBO 2008 – 2009 0 [42]
4 Ricky Burns WBO 2011 – 2012 2 [37]

Featherweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Ben Jordan World 1899 [43]
2 Howard Winstone WBC 1968 0 [44]
3 Paul Hodgkinson WBC 1991 – 1993 3 [45]
4 Colin McMillan WBO 1992 0 [46]
5 Steve Robinson IBF 1993 – 1995 7 [47]
6 Naseem Hamed WBC, IBF, WBO 1995 – 2000 15 [48]
7 Paul Ingle IBF 1999 – 2000 1 [49]
8 Scott Harrison WBO 2002 – 2003 1 [50]
9 Scott Harrison (2) WBO 2003 – 2005 6
10 Lee Selby IBF 2015 – 2018 4 [51]
11 Carl Frampton WBA 2016 – 2017 0 [52]
12 Josh Warrington IBF 2018 – 2021 3 [53]
13 Leigh Wood WBA 2021 - 2023 2 [84]

Super-bantamweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Duke McKenzie WBO 1992 – 1993 0 [54]
2 Scott Quigg WBA 2013 – 2016 6 [55]
3 Carl Frampton WBA, IBF 2014 – 2016 3 [56]
4 Isaac Dogboe WBO 2018 1 [57]

Bantamweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Joe Bowker World 1904 – 1905 1 [58]
2 Duke McKenzie WBO 1991 – 1992 2 [54]
3 Robbie Regan WBO 1996 0 [59]
4 Jamie McDonnell IBF 2013 0 [60]
5 Stuart Hall IBF 2013 – 2014 1 [61]
6 Paul Butler IBF 2014 0 [62]
7 Jamie McDonnell (2) WBA 2014 – 2018 6 [60]
8 Lee Haskins IBF 2015 – 2017 2 [63]
9 Ryan Burnett WBA, IBF 2017 – 2018 2 [64]

Super-flyweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Kal Yafai WBA 2016 – 2020 4 [65]

Flyweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Sid Smith World 1911 – 1913 1 [66]
2 Bill Ladbury World 1913 – 1914 1 [67]
3 Percy Jones World 1914 1 [68]
4 Tancy Lee World 1915 [69]
5 Joe Symonds World 1915 – 1916 [70]
6 Jimmy Wilde World 1916 – 1923 [71]
7 Jackie Brown World, NBA 1932 – 1935 3 [72]
8 Benny Lynch World, NBA, NYSAC, The Ring 1935 – 1938 3 [73]
9 Peter Kane World, NBA, The Ring 1938 – 1943 2 [74]
10 Jackie Paterson World, NBA, The Ring 1943 – 1948 1 [75]
11 Rinty Monaghan NBA 1948 – 1950 3 [76]
12 Terry Allen NBA, The Ring 1950 0 [77]
13 Walter McGowan The Ring 1966 0 [78]
14 Charlie Magri WBC 1983 0 [79]
15 Duke McKenzie IBF 1988 – 1989 1 [54]
16 Dave McAuley IBF 1989 – 1992 5 [80]
17 Pat Clinton WBO 1992 – 1993 1 [81]
18 Charlie Edwards WBC 2018 – 2019 2 [82]
19 Sunny Edwards IBF 2021 – 2023 3 [83]

Light-flyweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Paul Weir WBO 1994 – 1995 1 [84]

Mini-flyweight

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No. Name Recognition Date Title defence(s) Ref.
1 Paul Weir WBO 1993 1 [84]

See also

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References

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