First Two Time Undisputed Champ of the Four Belt Era?

Since the beginning of the four belt era, there have been only nine men to hold all four of the belts at the same time; seven of them have achieved this status within the last five years, and all of them are currently active. Among these men, three have moved up in weight and have undisputed in a second division within their reach, but which will become the first to achieve this coveted status in two weight classes?

Oleksandr Usyk
Usyk first gained the WBO Cruiserweight belt after beating champion Krzystof Glowacki in 2016, and then unified with WBC champion Mairis Briedis in 2018 during the World Boxing Super Series semi finals. His victory lead to him facing off against WBA/IBF champion Murat Gassiev later that year, a fight which saw him soundly outpoint his opponent to become the first four belt undisputed Cruiserweight champion, and he capped off that year by defending his status against Tony Bellew before moving up to Heavyweight. Currently, he holds the WBA Super, IBF and WBO belts at that weight, having won them from Anthony Joshua in 2021 and subsequently defending them against him the following year.

The man standing in his way is Tyson Fury, the current WBC champion and one of only two heavyweights to have held all four major titles at some point in their career, albeit not all at once. A fight seemed on the verge of being made for April 29th, but it failed to materialize. Both men have seemingly moved on for the time being, with Usyk and his team making plans to fight WBA Regular champion Daniel Dubois in an ordered consolidation bout, and Fury possibly intending to return in July against Andy Ruiz or Zhang Zhilei. Rumors have been circulating that the two parties are in talks for a bout in Saudi Arabia toward the end of the year, though this has been denied by Fury.

Terence Crawford
Crawford began his undisputed journey similar to Usyk, starting by winning the vacant Light Welterweight WBO belt in a bout against Thomas Dulorme in 2015. His first unification bout was against WBC champion Viktor Postol in 2016, where he soundly outpointed his opponent and even achieved two knockdowns in the fifth round. The following year he would meet WBA and IBF champion Julius Indongo in the first undisputed unification fight of the four belt era since Bernard Hopkins met Oscar De La Hoya in 2004. Similar to that bout, this one would end with a knockout, though this time it ended much quicker with a third round stoppage. Crawford vacated his titles without ever defending his status at this weight, and immediately challenged WBO champion Jeff Horn in a bout that would end via ninth round TKO.

The man who stands in his way is Errol Spence Jr, who has held all three other major titles since his victory over WBA champion Yordenis Ugas in 2022. A fight was being discussed for November of that year, but negotiations eventually fell through and Crawford instead defended his title for the sixth time in December, against David Avanesyan. It's been said that since then the two fighters made an agreement during a phone call, and a rumored June date has popped up for the potential fight. Crawford's ordered mandatory Alexis Rocha has moved onto another fight and talks of a bout between Spence and Thurman have gone quiet, though no sound proof has emerged of a fight between Spence and Crawford.

Naoya Inoue
Naoya Inoue's first step toward undisputed in the Bantamweight class began with his second round knockout of IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez in 2019. His very next bout was against WBA champion Nonito Donaire, which saw him claiming his second title at the weight class after twelve rounds. Donaire would also be the man Inoue fought for the WBC title three years later, though this time the fight would end less than halfway through the second round. In December of that year, Inoue would earn the WBO title by knocking out Paul Butler in the eleventh round of a one sided contest, becoming the ninth man to hold all four belts at the same time. A month later, Inoue vacated his titles and move up to Super Bantamweight, where he has yet to make his debut.

The men standing in his way are WBC/WBO champion Stephen Fulton and WBA/IBF champion Marlon Tapales. Fulton made his debut on the championship scene in 2021 when he defeated WBO champion Angelo Leo via lopsided unanimous decision, and later that year he would add the WBC belt to his collection after a controversial majority decision win against champion Brandon Figueroa. Fulton's plans for this year appear to have initially been to move up and rematch Figueroa, but Fulton opted to stay at Bantamweight to face Inoue in a bout currently scheduled for July 25th. Tapales became the WBA/IBF champion this month after defeating Murodjon Akhmadaliev in a close split decision fight. He has expressed interest in unifying with the winner of Fulton-Inoue, especially if it's the latter.

And now we move onto what I consider the dark horse fighters of this race.

Canelo Alvarez
After unifying his Middleweight WBA and WBC titles with IBF champion Daniel Jacobs and a brief foray into Light Heavyweight that saw him winning the WBO belt off of Sergey Kovalev, Canelo set his focus on the Super Middleweight division. Prior to those bouts he had gained the WBA Regular belt at this weight via third round TKO against Rocky Fielding. Two years later he fought WBA Super champion Callum Smith, and by defeating him he also gained the vacant WBC belt. The following year he defended his titles once before unifying with IBF champion Billy Joe Saunders in the first half of the year and WBO champion Caleb Plant towards the end. After becoming the first undisputed champion of this weight class, he expressed interest in returning to Light Heavyweight to claim all of the titles there.

The men standing in his way are WBA champion Dmitry Bivol and WBC/IBF/WBO champion Artur Beterbiev. Alvarez fought Bivol in May of 2022 with hopes of facing Beterbiev immediately after. However, Bivol had other plans, and he defended his title by soundly outboxing Canelo in a fight that was controversially close on all three scorecards. Canelo plans to fight Bivol for his title again one day, possibly later this year. Additionaly, although Canelo has never been down in his career as a professional, many question how well his chin would hold up against Beterbiev, who is known for his exceptional punching power and has thus far won all nineteen of his professional bouts by stoppage.

Dmitry Bivol
Unlike all the others on this list, he has only ever held the WBA title and fought at one weight class with no desire to move up. What gets him mentioned alongside the rest are comments he recently made about the prospective rematch with Canelo. Although Canelo wants to fight for the WBA title again, Bivol has said he will only fight him again if the Super Middleweight titles are on the line. In addition to fighting for Canelo's undisputed status, a match to unify all four belts at Light Heavyweight with Beterbiev has long been discussed, although it has yet to materialize. Further complicating matters, the WBC president has said they would not sanction the fight due to Bivol's Russian citizenship, so all that easily makes him the darkest horse in this race.

In addition to the above, we also have current undisputed Light Middleweight champion Jermell Charlo, current Lightweight undisputed champion Devin Haney and former Light Welterweight undisputed champion and current WBO belt holder Josh Taylor. All three have expressed interest in some day moving up to a higher weight class to fight for a title, though none have made the move yet.

So, who do you think will become the first two time undisputed champion of the four belt era*? Do you think it will be one of the three former undisputed champs currently fighting at another weight? Do you think Canelo could still fulfill his Light Heavyweight dreams? Could Bivol take Canelo's status from him and then beat Beterbiev at his normal weight class? Maybe one of the other undisputed champions will move up and take the belts in short order before any of these guys can unify? Or perhaps it will be someone else entirely.

*In terms of men's boxing. I already know Claressa Shields has done this and Katie Taylor has a chance at it next month. I just figured I'd wait til the very end to mention it in case someone thinks about it halfway through so that they can then be disappointed their "well, actually" moment has already been thought of, because I am a smart ass

 

I agree that does seem to be an unfortunately common issue about boxers in general, though it isn't in play here with the poll. Partly because I've yet to take the time to watch it, so I'm not gonna judge the man based on a fight I haven't seen, but mostly because he has yet to fight at Welter or even plan a specific fight, same reason I didn't include Haney and Charlo in the poll. I did think they deserved a mention at least and figured some might pick them, which is what lead to me listing the "Other" option.

Usyk and Crawford are within one fight of getting it if the fights can be agreed on. Inoue has a fight planned with one of two champs with the other saying he wants to fight him after if he wins. Canelo and Bivol are likely to fight in a rematch later this year, and depending on what weight that fight is agreed on, the winner would then join Usyk and Crawford in having only one fight standing between their two time status. I almost listed Taylor but then decided not to since he's going to be fighting Lopez next, then probably rematch Catterall, and by the time he's in the title mix at Welter (unless he goes straight for the belts, which isn't impossible due to the WBO letting moving up titlists become mandatories) the titles will prolly be scattered, which is an awful lot of fights between him and two time status.

So, no writing off here, just don't think he's realistically within 1-2 fights of getting it like the rest of these guys, which was the main thing I thought about when putting them in the poll.

 

Unfortunately the politics of the sport and difficulties of getting certain fights made does play a very big part in this question. What makes this an interesting thought to me though, is that all of the guys most likely to get it have to do both that and then have a hard fight to win too.

Inoue has a leg up since the most difficult fight in his way is already scheduled and if he wins this he has someone else who has already said they'd love to fight him afterwards. I think he's the most likely one to get this, but if he were to lose this next fight he'd suddenly lose that frontrunner status. I personally don't think he'll lose to Fulton, but anything can happen in boxing.