Full list of undisputed champions in boxing as Canelo and Crawford prepare for historic clash

Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez will put his status as the undisputed super middleweight champion on the line when he takes on Terence Crawford in a Las Vegas superfight this weekend.

Canelo outpointed a committedly reticent William Scull earlier this year to unify all the major belts at 168 pounds for the second time in his career.

Saturday's (September 13, 2025) fight is a meeting between undisputed specialists, given Crawford has completed the set at both super lightweight and welterweight.

But what does it mean to be undisputed in boxing’s complicated landscape of multiple belts and champions? Allow us to explain. 

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What is an undisputed champion? Are there four or five belts?

The haul of belts Canelo will bring into the ring at Allegiant Stadium are the parts required to become an undisputed champion. The WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO are the four major recognized belts in boxing.

This has not always been the case. The WBC and WBA are long-established titles, meaning undisputed champions were more common in previous eras. 

Crawford and Errol Spence’s July 2023 welterweight showdown earned plenty of deserved comparisons during the build-up to the seismic 1981 meeting between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns. Leonard was the reigning WBC welterweight champion and took the WBA belt off Hearns with a dramatic 14th-round stoppage, becoming undisputed.

The IBF entered the picture as a major player in the 1980s, while the WBO’s ascent to the top table was somewhat staggered. Although WBO title meetings, such as the British blockbusters between Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn at middleweight and super middleweight, conferred legitimacy in certain weight classes, in others, it amounted to little more than a meaningless trinket. 

For example, when WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis met WBA and IBF ruler Evander Holyfield in their huge two-fight series in 1999, it was billed and recognized as an undisputed showdown. While the IBF quickly entered the elite conversation by recognizing existing WBA and WBC champions as its No.1 fighters, the WBO’s decision after its 1988 formation to allow lesser-known fighters to compete for its vacant titles meant a longer route to the top table.

At heavyweight, WBO champions Michael Moorer, Riddick Bowe, and Henry Akinwande vacated the belt to pursue the more established titles. However, the likes of Naseem Hamed, Joe Calzaghe, Oscar De La Hoya, and Wladimir Klitschko were among those who helped build the organization’s prestige.

In 2004, the WBC began naming WBO champions in its rankings, and the IBF recognized its rival in 2007.

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Below the big four, the IBO is the most notable world title today, but is not considered in the undisputed conversation. The proliferation of subsidiary and alternative titles within the big four (regular, super, diamond, franchise, emeritus — take your pick) has also muddied the waters.

To be considered the undisputed champion, a fighter must be in possession of the “full” world title belt from each of the WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO.

Eagle-eyed fans will notice a fifth piece of prominent hardware in Las Vegas this week — the celebrated Ring Magazine belt.

While not a sanctioning body title, the championship awarded by the American boxing publication is generally revered because it cuts through the complications of the alphabet belt era as a single title that recognizes the best fighter in each weight class.

Crawford became the first Ring Magazine welterweight champion since Floyd Mayweather in 2015 because the fight between himself and Spence was between the recognized No.1 and No.2 in the division.

As such, The Ring title tends to complement an undisputed haul rather than undermine a champion’s claims — something that has become notable over the recent past in men’s and women’s boxing when undisputed champions have become more commonplace, with promoters, broadcasters and fighters alike recognizing both the prestige and commercial advantages of having a single, unified champ.

(Al Bello/Getty Images)

Full list of men's undisputed champions

Below is the list of undisputed men's world champions in the four-belt era

Crawford became the first men's two-weight undisputed champion in the four-belt era by beating Spence. His fellow pound-for-pound high-flyer Naoya Inoue joined him, having stepped up to super bantamweight to stunningly dethrone WBC and WBO champion Stephen Fulton, then IBF and WBA champion Marlon Tapales. 

Oleksandr Usyk joined this exclusive club when the former undisputed cruiserweight champion defeated Tyson Fury twice to reign supreme at heavyweight.

Jermain Taylor remains the only man to win an undisputed title as a challenger to a champion holding all four of the belts when he defeated the great Bernard Hopkins in July 2005.

Full list of women's undisputed champions

Claressa Shields has been the dominant force of the women's undisputed era, becoming a two-time middleweight champion when she defeated Savannah Marshall in October 2022. Shields was undisputed at 154 after beating Marie-Eve Dicaire a year earlier.

Marshall imitated Jermain Taylor's feat of beating a reigning four-belt champion when she dethroned Franchon Crews-Dezurn to become undisputed at super middleweight. Jessica McCaskill did likewise when she beat long-reigning welterweight queen Cecilia Braekhus in August 2020.

McCaskill's bid to join Shields as a two-weight undisputed champion came unstuck when she lost to Chantelle Cameron in a battle for supremacy at 140 in November 2022. Cameron defended those belts successfully against undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor in May 2023, the first meeting between two reigning undisputed champions in the four-belt era.

In November 2023, Taylor avenged her first professional defeat and picked up all the super lightweight belts when she outpointed Cameron in a direct rematch.