By Gerardo Granados: I believe that if a country owns only one world title / belt or even if certain country owns the majority of the belts available it would mean that it has the best boxers, but instead it could mean that the promoters in that country are doing their job right.
This article is solely meant to inform the distribution of the diverse boxing world titles as today, it would take too long to speculate or to argue the reasons of why such distribution. The list will include the most recognized world titles even include the magazine title, one of the most recognized of the minor titles and the vast variety of “champions”.
If a fighter is born in X country then he will be considered as X citizen unless he fights under the flag of Z country. The list is too long to believe that all of these fine gentleman can be called champions so I prefer to call them “organization champions”.
Ladies and Gentlemen the countries with few world title belts are:
Armenia: Vic Darchinyan IBO bantam.
Denmark: Mikkel Kessler “emeritus” WBC super middle
Dominican Republic: Elio Rojas “in recess” WBC feather.
Hungary: Karoly Balzsay regular WBA super middle.
Georgia: Avtandil Khurtsidze IBO middle.
Indonesia: Chris John super WBA feather.
Poland: Krzysztof Wlodarczyk WBC cruiser.
Puerto Rico: Miguel Angel Cotto super WBA super welter. It is very unusual to see.
Romania: Lucian Bute IBF super middle.
The countries that hold two belts are:
Australia: Billy Dib IBF feather and Daniel Geale IBF middle.
France: Hassan N´Dam N´Jikam interim WBA middle and Souleymane M´baye interim WBA welter.
Kazakhstan: Beibut Shumenov WBA light heavy and Gennady Golovkin regular WBA middle.
Nicaragua: Roman Gonzalez WBA jr fly and Juan Palacios interim WBA minimum.
Panama: Guillermo Jones regular WBA Cruiser and Luis Concepcion WBA fly.
Venezuela: Jean Piero Perez interim WBA fly and Miguel Acosta regular WBA lightweight.
The country that hold three belts is:
Cuba: Guillermo Rigondeaux interim WBA super bantam, Yoan Pablo Hernandez interim WBA Cruiser and Yuriorkis Gamboa unified WBA feather,.
The countries that hold four belts are:
Germany: Robert Stieglitz WBO super middle, Marco Huck WBO cruiser, Felix Sturm WBA super champion middle and Dimitri Sartison regular WBA super middle.
Philippines: Nonito Donaire WBC – WBO bantam, Manny Pacquiao WBO welter, Drian Francisco interim WBA super fly.
Russia: Aleksander Povetkin regular WBA heavy, Dmitry Pirog WBO middle and Zauerbek Baysangurov IBO – interim WBO jr middle.
The country that hold five belts is:
Thailand: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam WBC & The Ring Magazine fly, Pornsawan Porpamook WBA minimum, Suriyan Sor Rungvisai WBC super fly. Tepparith Singwancha interim WBA super fly.
The country that hold six belts is:
South Africa: Nkosinathi Joyi IBF mini fly, Moruti Mthalane IBF fly, Takalani Ndlovu IBF jr feather, Gideon Buthelezi IBO jr fly, Tshifiwa Munyai IBO super bantam, Thomas Oosthuizen IBO super middle.
United Kingdom: Ricky Burns WBO jr lightweight, Nathan Cleverly WBO light heavy, Carl Froch WBC super middle, Amir Khan IBF – WBA super champion super lightweight and Brian Magee interim WBA super middle.
The countries that holds eight belts are:
Argentina: Omar Narvaez WBO jr bantam, Sergio Martinez WBC Diamond/Emeritus & The Ring Magazine middle, Roman Gonzalez interim WBA Light fly, Jonathan Victor Barros regular WBA feather, Marcos Maidana regular WBA super lightweight and Juan Carlos Reveco interim WBA World fly.
Japan: Takahiro Aoh WBC Superfeather, Toshiaki Nishioka WBC Superbantam, Kazuto Ioka WBC Straw, Tomonobu Shimizu regular WBA super fly, Koki Kameda regular WBA bantam, Akifumi Shimoda regular WBA super bantam, Takashi Uchiyama regular WBA super feather and Katsunari Takayama IBF minimum.
Ukraine: Serhiy Dzinziruk WBO jr middle, Wladimir Klitschko WBA – IBF – WBO – IBO & The Ring Magazine heavy, Vitali Klitschko WBC heavy, Vyacheslav Senchenko regular WBA welter.
The country that hold fifteen belts is:
United States of America: Brian Viloria WBO fly, Tim Bradley WBO – WBC champion in recess light welter, Bernard Hopkins WBC & The Ring magazine light heavy, Brandon Rios WBA regular lightweight, Robert Guerrero interim WBA lightweight, Victor Ortiz WBC welter, Austin Trout regular WBA super welter, Andre Ward WBA super champion super middle, Andre Berto IBF welter, Cornelius Bundrage IBF super welter, Tavoris Cloud IBF light heavy, Steve Cunningham IBF cruiser and Antonio Tarver IBO cruiser.
The country that holds the most of the belts available is:
Mexico, owns twenty two belts: Moises Fuentes WBO mini Fly; Ramon Garcia WBO Jr. Fly, Adrian Hernandes regular WBC Light fly, Edgar Sosa emeritus WBC Light fly, Giovani Segura regular WBA Light fly & The Ring Magazine Champion, Ulises Solis IBF light fly; Hugo Ruiz interim WBA bantam, Abner Mares IBF bantam; Jorge Arce WBO jr. Feather; Orlando Salido WBO feather, Jhonny Gonzalez WBC feather; Jorge Solis interim WBA super feather; Juan Manuel Marquez WBO – WBA super – The Ring magazine lightweight, Miguel Vazquez IBF lightweight; Saul Alvarez WBC super welter; Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. regular WBC middle, Ganigan Lopez WBC silver minimum, Hernan Marquez WBA World fly and Cristian Mijares IBF super fly.
One hundred fourteen organization champions? Yes, may I say one hundred fourteen organization titles / belts distributed between twenty seven countries around the world that bring excitement to boxing fans almost every weekend in almost every corner of the planet. Cheers to all these brave and mean sons of boxing.
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