Current World Heavyweight Champion claimants

I am a big believer in to be the many you have to beat the man. ie a title can be earned only when the champion is defeated. When Lennox Lewis retired in June 2003, there was no consensus champion. Looking at boxrec, there were abour 20 or so different title claimants, most of which were given no credence but all of which are claimants. So, from this date, i have traced the lineage of each and every claimant, with no residence rules. Hopefully this will eventually give us an undisputed champion.

Without any politics, it shows that Since 2003, there are currently still 13 fighters around who can trace a lineage to someone who claimed a title in 2003. This does not include those who claimed secondary titles (eg the WBC fecacal title or international title or whatever it is called) i have limited (as far as possible) the search to every national title or regional title, or dodgy World governing body.

I know you are all asking why i did this, but it started off as an interesting boxrec search of the lineage of the Australian Heavyweight title (which incidentally was pretty similar to that of the world title for much of its existence) and eventually i just extended it, through boredom and sheer willpower (ie looking for an excuse not to work).

Anyway, the results were reasonably interesting. It is quite clear from the search that there are still 3 decent title claimaints. The surprising thing, is that of Russian Chageav, who actually holds the most lineal titles. He holds the following titles:
Wba, Commonwealth, British, WBF, WBU, WBFoundation, EU, South American, Russian, Hungarian, Argentinian, Croation, Fijian, German titles. That actually covers a reasonably large amount of nations, and clearly he has a far better credential to be considered the world champion than i ever thought.

Next in line with no of titles is Vladimir Klitchsko. Vlad holds the IBF, WBO, IBO, IBU, NABF, NABA, EBU and Canadian titles.

Vitali, holds the third most titles. His reign currently includes the WBC, Australian, IBA, Brazillian and OPBF.

Surprisingly, the person with the 4th number of title claimants is actually David Haye. Haye has the USBA, Mexican and IBC titles as well as the Undisputed cruiserweight title. Strangely enough, his clash with Vlad will see the winner walking away with quite a few more lineal titles and will actually help find an undisputed heavyweight champion.

Outside of these 4 fighters there are no real title claimants (ok i know there are only 3 anyway). But, it is worth noting the others as they do still have lineal titles:
Plato has the PABO and South AFrican Lineal titles - The SA lineal title is a decent claim to fame as he has beaten the fighter who at one time was considered the best fighter in South Africa (even if technically Sanders and Botha were probably both better than the SA Champion).

Dimitrenko is the reigning lineal US mid west and Mid atlantic champion, although i am not sure how this title sits politically.

Areola is the lineal African champion. Zuri Lawrence is the French Champion, Malik Scott, the Nigerian Champion, Cedric Boswell is the GBU Champion, Chincangu owns the Zimbabwe and Zambian championship. Platov holds the championship of South Africa, as well as the PABA titles. Fimpong holds the Nigerian Championship and last but not least, Friday Ahunya holds the Lineal New Zealand Championship.

Incidentally, the only other title which possibly could have any type of historical significance is the Lineal World Lightheavyweight title. Roy Jones was the accepted champ at this weight (i know about Michaeljewski but he was never any chance of stepping up to heavy). Jones had actually won a regional Heavy title against Ruiz just months before Lewis retired, so technically his Light heavy title may give him a claim. However, this claim was extinguished just recently when the reigning lineal title holder, Joe Calzaghe elected to retire.

 

Yeah. I started with whoever was the champion in that area (solely using boxrec) and worked out who beat the man and where the lineal title ended up. In the days of John L, before the internet and TV etc the only way for him to become champion was to follow the local scene and beat the best o fthe locals. History says the British, US and Austrlian titles were the most highly regarded. To be honest i was actually quite surprised at just how many of the titles actually lead back to the main 3 champions and it also surprised me that Haye picked up a couple of titles also. Given time, the titles will eventually lead back to one.

I probably do tend to agree. But, his brother has been considered the best in the world for a longer period of time, and he is the only of the original 4 belt holders/winners (Vitali, Byrd, Ruiz and Brewster) who held the titles when Lennox retired, that is still going strong and undefeated. Russian Chagaev is also the only undefeated legitimate champion left, so technically there is an argument that he has a good claim too. I really would love to see Haye v Klitchsko followed by Chageav v Vitali with the winners meeting. Sadly, this could only really happen if one of the klits loses so i guess i will hope for this result. Valuev-Chageav II is coming up and while it isnt that great a fight, Valuev also could make for a decent and interesting unification fight with either or both of the Klit brothers.

 

To update the list of Lineal Champions, the biggest mover has been Vlad Klitchsko. His win over Russian Chageav gets as close to a unified champion as we are going to get for some time, it seems.

His Lineal resume now see him as the reigning Wba,IBF, WBO, IBO, IBU, NABF, NABA, EBU, Commonwealth, British, WBF, WBU, WBFoundation, EU, South American, Russian, Hungarian, Argentinian, Croation, Fijian, German titles panamanian and Canadian titles.

Vitali still is the second highest holder of lineal titles with two of them still being reasonably well recognised. His titles are WBC, Australian, IBA, Brazillian and OPBF.

David Haye was the 3rd highest holder. It is a shame that he didnt "unify" with either Klit, but hopefully that will happen soon. He still holds the USBA, Mexican and IBC titles as well as the world lineal Cruiserweight title.

Oleg Platov has recently extended his reign as the PABO and South African Champion with an 8th round UD over Daniil Paratyatko in Germany. He looks to have a decent record, so hopefully he will step up and his lineage will be unified soon.

Eddie Chambers has taken over the Mid West and Mid Atlantic Championships from Dimitrenko. Like Oleg, these title may see unification some time soon.

Joseph Chincango, the Zambian and Zimbabwe lineal champion has successfully defended his title with a win over Osborne Machimama.

Chris Arreola has KOd Jameel McLine to defend his lineal African title.

Cedric Boswell the undisputed GBU champion has successfully defended his title with a 6th round TKO of Serdar Uysal.

The undefeated Nigerian Champion Malik Scott is still sitting on his title.

Zuri Lawrence still holds the French title, although he may have retired.

Friday Ahunya has not yet defended his New Zealand Heavyweight title.

I do believe that my intrepid researchers have added the Panamanian title to Vlads resume and that some doubt has been cast on Malik Scott's claims to the Nigerian championship but that will have to remain until someone else does the research. The last 6 months has seen some definite improvements in the hunt for a lineal championship. I have also added the World Lineal cruiserweight title to david haye as well.

 

Well, two months later and the biggest change is that Vitali has taken the African title away from Chris Areola. And the unification dream is a little bit closer. His titles are WBC, Australian, IBA, Brazillian, OPBF and African.

In other news, we have a new French champion. Zuri Lawrence was TKOd by Jason Estrada in the 7th.

Most fans here would know that Cedric Boswell was too good for Cisse Malif and he successfully retained the highly regarded GBU championship!

For the record, Vlad still has the most titles with the following being his:
Wba,IBF, WBO, IBO, IBU, NABF, NABA, EBU, Commonwealth, British, WBF, WBU, WBFoundation, EU, South American, Russian, Hungarian, Argentinian, Croation, Fijian, German titles panamanian and Canadian titles.

Friday Ahunya (NZ title), Malik Scott (Nigerian) and Joseph Chincangu(Zimbabwe and Zambia), Eddie Chambers (Mid West and Mid Atlantic), Oleg Platov (Pabo and South African), David Haye (USBA, Mexican, IBC and Cruiserweight) all had no fights since the last update.

 

These titles are all lineal, since Lewis retired. No political appointments or strippings are allowed. A champion cannot lose his title unless he is beaten in the ring.

I do find it quite interesting, that virtually all of the national titles have already found their way to the big two, and even most o fthe obscure titles are slowly finding their way towards a single (or in the current case double) world champion.