Disputed Undisputed Champions
If a fighter wins all the titles but is stripped by one organization of its title, he may continue to be considered the undisputed champion.
Roy Jones Jr. was promoted as the undisputed light heavyweight champion by HBO after unifying the WBA, WBC and IBF titles in June 1999, for which he was also awarded The Ring championship title in 2002. However, two of those belts (WBA and IBF) had been stripped from Dariusz Michalczewski, who had unified them with his WBO title by beating the Lineal champion Virgil Hill in June 1997, and subsequently remained unbeaten, defending his remaining belt until 2004. Speaking of Jones' claim to being undisputed champion, one writer opined that the distinction "could just as easily belong to current WBO titlist Dariusz Michalczewski."
Five months after unifying the WBC, IBF and WBA belts to become the undisputed heavyweight champion, a U.S. Federal Judge ruled that Lennox Lewis would be stripped by the WBA of their world championship belt for fighting Michael Grant instead of the association's #1 contender, John Ruiz. The fight took place on April 29, 2000. Lewis remained a unified world champion until April 22, 2001, when he was defeated by Hasim Rahman. He regained the WBC and IBF belts following victory over Rahman seven months later in a rematch. His reign as a unified world champion ended in September 2002, when he rejected the chance to fight the IBF's #1 contender, Chris Byrd, and was therefore stripped by the organisation of their belt. He retained his WBC belt until his retirement in February 2004.
Jermain Taylor won all four middleweight belts from Bernard Hopkins in July 2005, but was stripped of the IBF title for agreeing to a rematch rather than fighting Sam Soliman. Nevertheless, he was still described as "undisputed champion" by some reports.
After Joe Calzaghe's super middleweight victory over Mikkel Kessler in November 2007, he was frequently described as "undisputed champion". Others disputed this, because although he held the WBA, WBC, and WBO belts, he vacated his IBF title in November 2006 rather than face a mandatory challenger.
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Famous quotes containing the words undisputed and/or champions:
“If a man has been his mother’s undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“While the Governor, and the Mayor, and countless officers of the Commonwealth are at large, the champions of liberty are imprisoned.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)