A Brief History of Boxing’s Heavyweight Division – Part 4: 2000-Present

Following his victory over Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Unfortunately for him, this reign would only last five months, as he was stripped of his WBA title for deciding to fight WBC mandatory Michael Grant instead of WBA mandatory John Ruiz. Despite losing this title Lewis had a very successful 2000, with two 2nd round stoppages against Michael Grant and Francois Botha and a unanimous decision against David Tua.

The vacant WBA title was put on the line in a match up between John Ruiz and Evander Holyfield. Holyfield was awarded a unanimous decision but the fight was extremely close which prompted an immediate rematch to take place. This time round Ruiz came away with the decision, this back and forth led to a third and final fight between the two to take place in December 2001. The third fight was ruled a draw, meaning that Ruiz retained his WBA title.

Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitschko – 21/6/2003

Lewis next defended his titles against American challenger Hasim Rahman in South Africa. At the time Lewis had been appearing in the film Oceans Eleven, which meant that he wasn’t entirely focused or prepared going into the fight. Rahman capitalised on this and knocked Lewis out in the 5th round. The two had a rematch in late 2001, and Lewis got his revenge, landing a perfect 2 punch combination that floored Rahman in the 4th. Lewis was now a 3-time heavyweight world champion. Following him regaining his titles, Lewis finally got the fight that he had been chasing for so many years: Mike Tyson. This was a far cry from the Tyson of the late 80’s, and Lewis looked very comfortable, stopping the former world champion in the 8th round. Following the Tyson fight, Lewis vacated his IBF title for refusing to fight their mandatory challenger Chris Byrd. In June 2003, Lewis defended once more against Vitali Klitschko, a last minute replacement for his original opponent Kirk Johnson. This fight would infamously go on to be known as ‘TKO6’, as, despite the fact that Klitschko was leading on the judges scorecards, the fight had to be stopped at the end of the 6th round due to a horrendous cut caused by a Lewis punch. Lewis successfully retained his WBC and lineal titles for the final time, and retired from professional boxing after the fight.

A year later Vitali Klitschko fought Corrie Sanders for the vacant WBC title. Sanders was coming off a shock 2nd round stoppage victory against Vitali’s brother Wladimir, but Vitali got revenge for his brother, as he stopped Sanders in the 8th round. Vitali made one defence of his title before retiring in 2005, following a snapped ACL injury. This meant that the WBC title was now vacant.

Following retaining his WBA title against Holyfield, John Ruiz successfully defended his title against Kirk Johnson, before former middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. stepped up to challenge for the title. Jones completely outclassed Ruiz and won by unanimous decision. He was the first former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight world title in 106 years. Following the fight, Jones vacated the title and moved back down to light heavyweight. 9 months later Ruiz faced off against Hasim Rahman for the interim WBA title, and won by unanimous decision. Following Jones vacating the title, the WBA reinstated Ruiz as the champion.

Evander Holyfield attempted to become a 5-time heavyweight champion on the 14th of December 2002 against Chris Byrd. Holyfield was beginning show his age at this stage of his career, and lost by unanimous decision to Byrd. Byrd successfully defended his title 4 times, before he lost by 7th round TKO to Wladimir Klitschko in 2006. This was the beginning of one of the longest reigns in heavyweight history.

Following Vitali Klitschko’s retirement, Hasim Rahman was named the new WBC champion, but only successfully defended once, in a draw against James Toney, before losing his title to Uzbekistani fighter Oleg Maskaev. Maskaev successfully defended once before being stopped in the 6th round by Nigerian Samuel Peter. However, Peter’s reign was short lived, as he faced former champion Vitali Klitschko, who had come out of retirement, and Peter retired at the end of the 8th round.

Nikolai Valuev vs David Haye – 7/11/2009

John Ruiz defended his WBA title twice, before the 30th April 2005 when he fought James Toney, initially Toney won by unanimous decision, but failed a drug test following the fight. The fight was ruled a no contest and Ruiz was reinstated as champion. Later that year Ruiz would officially lose his title however, against 7 foot tall Russian, Nikolai Valuev. Valuev was, and still is, the tallest boxer to ever win a world title. Valuev remained champion until 2007, when he lost by majority decision to Ruslan Chagaev. Chagaev retained his title against Matt Skelton, but was stripped of the title soon after, for being unable to face his mandatory challenger, Nikolai Valuev. Valuev instead fought John Ruiz for the vacant title, and again won by decision. Valuev defended his title against former champion Evander Holyfield before losing his title to former Cruiserweight world champion David Haye by majority decision.

In February 2007 the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) became recognised as a major governing body. At the time of this decision, the WBO champion was Shannon Briggs. Just 4 months later Briggs lost his title to Sultan Ibragimov. Ibragimov attempted to unify his WBO title with the IBF in February 2008 against Wladimir Klitschko, but lost by unanimous decision. Klitschko won the vacant The Ring and Lineal titles in 2009 against Russian Chagaev, after Chagaev retired in his corner following the 9th round.

David Haye scored two stoppage victories in his two defences against John Ruiz and Audley Harrison, before facing off against unified champion Wladimir Klitschko. The fight didn’t really live up to the pre-fight hype however, as Klitschko won a comfortable unanimous decision. The Klitschko brothers now held every major world title in the heavyweight division.

Vitali made 9 defences of his WBC title, before announcing his second and final retirement from boxing in 2013. He retied with a record of 45-2 with 41 KO’s. On the 10th May 2014, Bermane Stiverne and Chris Arreola fought for the vacant title. This was a strange decision from the WBC, as the two had fought less than a year earlier and Stiverne had won by unanimous decision. Stiverne made much quicker work of Arreola this timee however, stopping him in the 6th round. Almost a year later Stiverne would attempt to defend his title against unbeaten challenger Deontay Wilder. At the time Wilder had a record of 32-0 with 32 KO’s. This fight was the first time that Wilder went the distance, beating Stiverne by unanimous decision.

Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury – 28/11/2015

From 2006 to 2015, Wladimir Klitschko made 18 successful defences of his titles, unifying the division multiple times. In November 2015, Klitschko faced unbeaten British challenger Tyson Fury. Fury outclassed, outthought and frankly confused his opponent for twelve rounds, before winning by unanimous decision. Klitschko’s 9 year reign had ended. Just 10 days after the fight, the IBF stripped Fury of his title due to his plans to rematch with Klitschko. The IBF wanted him to face their mandatory challenger, Vyacheslav Glazkov, but Fury refused. The rematch was initially scheduled for July 2016, but the fight was postponed due to Fury being unfit to fight. In September Fury failed a drug test due to the presence of cocaine, and vacated his titles one month later. Fury temporarily retired following this.

In January 2016, Glazkov and Charles Martin faced off for the vacant IBF title. Glazkov injured his knee significantly in the 3rd round and was unable to continue. Martin was ruled the winner and became the new IBF champion. Glazkov never fought professionally again. Just 3 months later Martin was defending his title in the UK against unbeaten Olympic gold medalist Anthony Joshua. Joshua landed two perfect right hands in the second round and won by second round KO. Joshua was now 16-0 and the new IBF heavyweight champion.

In December 2016, Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz Jr. faced off for the vacant WBO title. The fight was incredibly close, and there are arguments that can be made for both fighters winning, but Parker walked away with the majority decision victory in his home city of Auckland.

In April 2017, former long reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko challenged Anthony Joshua for his title. The vacant WBA title was also on the line. The fight was an instant classic, as both fighters got up off the canvas before Joshua eventually stopped Klitschko in the 11th round. Joshua was now the unified heavyweight champion. One year later, Joshua unified again, this time against WBO champion Joseph Parker in Cardiff. This fight saw Joshua adopt a more cautious style, as he went the distance for the first time in his professional career, and won by unanimous decision. Joshua now held the IBF, WBA and WBO titles.

Following winning the WBC title, Wilder made 6 relatively light defences of his title, before facing his first big step up, Luis Ortiz. The fight was a back and forth chess match in the early rounds, before each boxer landed some huge power shots, with both nearly being stopped. Wilder ultimately ended the fight in the 10th round, with a right uppercut. Then, in December 2018, Tyson Fury challenged Wilder for his title. Fury had had two easy fights before stepping up to face the feared puncher. Many didn’t give Fury a chance, but to many peoples surprise, Fury completely outclassed Wilder, and looked like he’d never been gone. Wilder dropped Fury in the 9th and 12th rounds, but Fury would not stay down, and fought on right until the end. The fight was ultimately ruled a draw, in the biggest robbery of a British fighter in the US since the first fight between Lewis and Holyfield in 1999.

Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr. – 1/6/2019

In June 2019, Joshua was originally set to face Jarrell Miller, but two months before the fight, Miller failed two separate drug tests. A replacement was needed and Andy Ruiz Jr. stepped up. Joshua dropped Ruiz mid way through the 3rd round with a perfect two punch combination, but when he then went in for the kill he got careless, and Ruiz caught Joshua with a left hook to the temple that completely threw Joshua’s equilibrium off. Ruiz dropped Joshua twice in that round, and he was lucky to make it to the bell. Through the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds, Joshua didn’t seem himself, although he was slowly beginning to regain his legs. Ruiz went in in the 7th round however, dropping Joshua twice more before the referee stopped the fight. This was arguably the biggest heavyweight upset since Hasim Rahman knocked out Lennox Lewis. The two agreed terms for an immediate rematch that took place later that year. This time, Joshua was far more cautious and Ruiz was far more out of shape. Joshua arguably won all but one round of the fight and regained his titles by unanimous decision.

In February of this year, Wilder and Fury had a rematch of their epic encounter from 15 months before. This time however, Fury completely changed his game plan, as he walked down Wilder and dropped him twice en route to a 7th round TKO finish. Fury winning this fight meant that all of the major heavyweight titles are now held exclusively by British fighters for the first time since the establishment of sanctioning bodies.

A Brief History of Boxing’s Heavyweight Division – Part 3: 1980-1999

Following his victory of Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes would go on to defend his WBC heavyweight title 8 times between 1981 and 1983. Following his first round knockout victory over Marvis Frazier, Holmes vacated the WBC title, as the governing body would not sanction his fight against Frazier as a title fight, due to the fact that he was unranked by the WBC at the time of the fight. In 1983, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) was formed. On the 11th of December Holmes was named their inaugural heavyweight champion.

Mike Weaver defended his WBA title twice in 1980 and 1981, before coming up against the unbeaten Michael Dokes, who stopped him in the first round. The two had an immediate rematch 5 months later, but this time it ended in a draw, meaning that Dokes retained his title. The next 4 WBA title fights in a row saw the title change hands, as Gerrie Coetzee, Greg Page and Tony Tubbs all failed to defend the title.

On the 9th of March 1984, Tim Witherspoon and Greg Page fought for the WBC title which Holmes had vacated the year before. Witherspoon won a majority decision, but then lost the title in his very next fight to Pinklon Thomas. Two years after losing his WBC title, Witherspoon beat Tony Tubbs to become a two-time champion, winning the WBA belt. He defended once against Frank Bruno before losing by 1st round KO to James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith.

Larry Holmes vs Michael Spinks – 21/9/1985

Following him gaining the IBF title, Larry Holmes made 3 successful defences of his title, and had created a record of 48-0, just one win away from equalling Rocky Marciano’s record. Holmes attempted to do this by fighting former undisputed light heavyweight champion Michael Spinks. Finally a match was found for the long reigning champion, as Spinks came away with a unanimous decision victory, becoming a two-weight world champion. Holmes attempted to win back his IBF and lineal titles 7 months later, but Spinks won again, this time by split decision. Spinks would eventually be stripped of the IBF title in 1987, but still kept his lineal title.

Pinklon Thomas made one successful defence of his WBC title against former world champion Mike Weaver, before losing it on the 22nd of March 1986 to Trevor Berbick. On the 22nd of November that year, Berbick attempted to defend his world title against unbeaten 28-0 challenger Mike Tyson. Tyson’s devastating power was finally on display on the world stage, as he stopped Berbick in the second round to become the youngest every heavyweight world champion at just 20 years old. In March of the next year Tyson unified the WBC and WBA titles, beating James Smith by unanimous decision. Tyson won the IBF title in 1987, beating Tony Tucker to become the undisputed heavyweight champion at just 21 years old. He beat former world champion Larry Holmes by 4th round KO in 1988 before facing off against lineal champion Michael Spinks. Tyson managed to get inside Spinks’ head massively going into the fight, and he capitalised on that, knocking him out just 90 seconds into the first round. Spinks would never fight professionally again.

Mike Tyson made two more defences of his world titles in the later 80’s before fighting James ‘Buster’ Douglas on the 11th of February 1990 in Tokyo. This was mainly considered to be a tune up bout for the champion before facing former undisputed cruiserweight champion Evander Holyfield. Douglas came into the fight as a 42/1 underdog, but pulled off arguably the greatest upset in professional sports history, getting up from a heavy knockdown to knock Tyson out in the 10th round.

Evander Holyfield vs Riddick Bowe – 13/11/1992

Douglas would never successfully defend his titles, and lost by 3rd round knockout to Evander Holyfield in October of that year. Between 1990 and 1992, Holyfield defended his titles 3 times, 2 defences against former world champions in George Foreman and Larry Holmes, before coming up against unbeaten Olympic silver medalist Riddick Bowe. The fight ended up being an all time classic, and one of the best heavyweight title fights in the history of the sport, as Bowe won by unanimous decision. Just one month later, Bowe vacated his WBC title by literally dropping it into a bin, due to the fact that he couldn’t reach agreed terms to face the WBC’s mandatory challenger Lennox Lewis, the man who had beaten him to the gold medal at the 1988 Olympics. Lewis was subsequently awarded the WBC title, despite not winning it inside the ring.

Lewis defended his title 3 times, including an all English battle with Frank Bruno in Cardiff, before shockingly losing it to Oliver McCall by second round KO in September 1994. McCall defended once against Larry Holmes, before losing his title 1 year after winning it to Frank Bruno. This was the 4th time that Bruno had fought for a world title, having been knocked out in all 3 of his previous attempts.

Riddick Bowe defended his title twice before having a rematch against Evander Holyfield. This time, Holyfield got the decision, becoming a two-time, two-weight world champion. His second reign would be short lived however, as in his next fight he lost his titles to former light heavyweight world champion Michael Moorer. Just like Holyfield’s reign however, it was short lived, as he faced former world champion George Foreman. Foreman was 45 at the time of the fight, but knocked Moorer out in the 10th round to become oldest ever heavyweight champion, 20 years after losing his title to Muhammad Ali. Foreman was stopped of his WBA title the March after for refusing to defend against mandatory challenger Tony Tucker.

5 Nov 1995: George Foreman trows a left punch at Michael Moorer during the fight in Las Vegas. Forman wins by a knock out in round 10. Mandatory Credit: Al Bello /Allsport

In March 1996 Frank Bruno attempted to defend his WBC title for the first time against former world champion Mike Tyson. The two had fought previously in 1989, and Tyson had stopped Bruno in the 5th round. This time Tyson finished the job even quicker, stopping him in the 3rd to become a two-time heavyweight champion. This was Bruno’s final fight as a professional. Tyson would vacate the WBC title later than year to pursue a fight against Evander Holyfield, instead of facing his mandatory challenger Lennox Lewis. Tyson beat Bruce Seldon by first round knockout however to win the WBA world title. Bruce Seldon had beaten Tony Tucker for the vacant title 1 year earlier.

Two months after his win over Seldon, Tyson finally faced off against two-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. There had been several previous attempts to make the fight happen but they had all unfortunately fallen through. Holyfield dominated for the vast majority of the fight before seriously hurting Tyson at the end of the 10th. Holyfield picked up where he left off in the 11th and stopped him inside the first minute of the round. Holyfield was now a 3-time heavyweight champion. The two had an immediate rematch 7 months later, with the fight going on to become known as the ‘bite fight’. Tyson bit Holyfield on the ear twice in the 3rd round before being disqualified at the end of the round. Holyfield retained his title and Tyson had his boxing license rescinded and was fined 3 millions dollars. He wouldn’t fight again for over a year.

Foreman defended his IBF and lineal title in April 1995 against Axel Schulz. Foreman won a very controversial majority decision so therefore the IBF demanded an immediate rematch. Foreman instead vacated his IBF title, but still retained his lineal title. He successfully defended his lineal title twice more over the next two years against Crawford Grimsley and Lou Savarese before losing in November 1997 to Shannon Briggs by majority decision. This was Foreman’s final fight as a professional.

In February 1997, Lennox Lewis fought the only man to beat him up until that point, Oliver McCall, for the vacant WBC title. McCall was going through several personal issues at the time of the fight, and often just refused to engage with Lewis. Between rounds he would refuse to sit on the stool in his corner and was seen crying in the ring, before the referee waved it off in the 5th round. Lewis was now a two-time heavyweight champion. Lewis defended his title twice before facing off against lineal champion Shannon Briggs. Briggs almost stopped Lewis early, but the champion battled back to stop him in the 5th, becoming the WBC and lineal heavyweight champion.

Following his second victory against Tyson, Holyfield unified the WBA and IBF titles, beating Michael Moorer in the 8th round. He then defended his titles against Vaughn Bean before setting up a fight against Lennox Lewis in early 1999. The winner would become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Riddick Bowe. Lewis dominated from bell to bell in an absolutely outstanding performance, but somehow, the judges saw it differently. The fight was ruled a draw, so therefore an immediate rematch was set up. This time the judges scored it correctly and Lewis won a unanimous decision, to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion. This was the last world title fight of the 20th century.