List of Puerto Rican Boxing World Champions

List Of Puerto Rican Boxing World Champions

In Puerto Rico, boxing is considered a major sport, having produced more amateur and professional world champions than any other sport in its history. Puerto Rico ranks third worldwide between countries with most boxing world champions and is the only place to have champions accredited in all of the current boxing divisions. This number also places the archipelago in the global lead in terms of champions per capita. February 9, 2008 was the first time that boxers from Puerto Rico had held three of the four major welterweights titles (World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization) when Carlos Quintana defeated Paul Williams to join Miguel Cotto and Kermit Cintron as champions in the division.

Individually, Puerto Rican world champions have earned numerous achievements. These include, Wilfredo Gómez's record for most defenses in the super bantamweight division and for most successive knockouts by a titleholder. On September 3, 1994, Daniel Jiménez established a world record for the quickest knockout in a championship fight, defeating Harald Geier in 17 seconds. Juan Manuel López is fifth in this category, having defeated César Figueroa in 47 seconds during his first defense. Ossie Ocasio was the first World Boxing Association (WBA) cruiserweight champion, winning it on February 13, 1982. This accomplishment was mimicked in other organizations: Jose De Jesús, José Ruíz Matos, John John Molina and Héctor Camacho did it in their respective divisions in the World Boxing Organization (WBO), while Ángel Almena was the first pugilist to win the International Boxing Organization's super flyweight title. In women's boxing, Amanda Serrano holds the distinction of being the first IBF super featherweight champion.