Pretty cool list here, basically all household names. Even Jack Sharkey probably has better name recognition than some of the alphabet soup HW champs since 2000. 1 Jack Dempsey 1922 Jul 24 1926 Sep 23 2 2 2 Gene Tunney 1926 Sep 23 1928 Jul 31 R 2 2 3 Max Schmeling 1930 Jun 12 1931 Jan 7 S-1 0 0 4 Jack Sharkey 1932 Jun 21 1933 Jun 29 0 0 5 Primo Carnera 1933 Jun 29 1934 Jun 14 2 2 6 Max Baer 1934 Jun 14 1935 Jun 13 0 0 7 Jim Braddock 1935 Jun 13 1937 Jun 22 0 0 8 Joe Louis 1937 Jun 22 1949 Mar 1 R 25 20 9 Ezzard Charles 1950 Sep 27 1951 Jul 18 4 4 10 Jersey Joe Walcott 1951 Jul 18 1952 Sep 23 1 1 11 Rocky Marciano 1952 Sep 23 1956 Apr 27 R 6 5 12 Floyd Patterson 1956 Nov 30 1959 Jun 26 4 4 13 Ingemar Johansson 1959 Jun 26 1960 Jun 20 0 0 14 Floyd Patterson (2) 1960 Jun 20 1962 Sep 25 2 2 15 Sonny Liston 1962 Sep 25 1964 Feb 25 1 1 16 Muhammad Ali 1964 Feb 25 1967 May 9 S-2 9 9 17 Joe Frazier 1968 Mar 4 1970 Feb 16 3 5 5 Is there a better belt out there?
WBC. They are the universally recognized cream of the crop. NYSAC has fallen to the wayside. Though it would be nice to see them have a resurgence. I respect them more than the NABF
They weren't called belts back then. They were called world championships. Ring Magazine and the NBA awarded belts to the world champions. The belts were merely symbols signifying what the fighters had accomplished. Sometimes the champions were called "beltholders" because they had been awarded a belt that really meant something. The usage of the word "belts" as if they in themselves are important given the wholesale way they are handed out by the various promoters and their "sanctioning bodies" today really riles me. Nowadays the belts are worth the cost of manufacture, if that. Why not refer to the fighters as the XYZ heavyweight title holder instead of "belt" holder? Referring to true champions as beltholders is demeaning to what they have accomplished. Belts in and of themselves as they are used today are a joke. Anybody can buy any kind of belt on eBay or even directly from the manufacturers these days.
