List of Boxing Triple Champions - Recognition

Recognition

The following lists are for all boxers who have won championships from the regular major entities (including The Ring) and/or minor associations and other criteria.

The phrase Triple Crown is also used to refer to a fighter who has performed one or both of the following feats:

• Different Divisions - A fighter who has won championships in at least 3 different weight classes. Example: Mike McCallum who won the Light middleweight title, the Middleweight title and the Light heavyweight title.
• Same Division - A fighter who has won at least 3 titles in the same weight class. Example: Pernell Whitaker won the unified crown of the Lightweight division when adding the WBC and the WBA titles to his already captured IBF belt. In other words, Whitaker was a Triple Champion in the Lightweight division alone, a single weight class. Another example: Evander Holyfield who never was a triple champion in three different weight divisions but was a triple champion in a single division when he added the WBA and the WBC belt to his IBF Cruiserweight crown.

In the late 20th and early 21st Century this feat has become much more common for two reasons:

• Divisions - The major entities have 17 divisions in total but in some cases the governing 'minor' entities have a possible total of 19 because they are recognizing the still-unauthorized Super-cruiserweight (210) and/or Super Heavyweight (Hvy or 210+) titles in profesional boxing. The 17 officially recognized divisions are: Heavyweight (Hvy or 200+), Cruiserweight (200), Light heavyweight (175), Super middleweight (168), Middleweight (160), Super welterweight (154), Welterweight (147), Super lightweight (140), Lightweight (135), Super featherweight (130), Featherweight (126), Super bantamweight (122), Bantamweight (118), Super flyweight (115), Flyweight (112), Light flyweight (108) and Strawweight (105).
• Entities - the growing amount of professional boxing entities that claim a "World" status for its champions. Those organizations are:
  • Major Entities:
    • World Boxing Association (WBA) - founded in 1921
    • World Boxing Council (WBC) - founded in 1963
    • International Boxing Federation (IBF) - founded in 1976
    • World Boxing Organization (WBO) - founded in 1988
    • The Ring - Boxing's most respected magazine that was founded in 1922
      The Ring has its own version of lineal championship and began awarding championship belts in 1922. The Lineal Champion is also known as the true champion of the division. The Ring stopped giving belts to world champions in the 1990s but began again in 2002. In 2002, The Ring created a championship system that is "intended to reward fighters who, by satisfying rigid criteria, can justify a claim as the true and only world champion in a given weight class." The Ring claims to be more authoritative and open than the sanctioning bodies' rankings, with a page devoted to full explanations for ranking changes. A fighter pays no sanctioning fees to defend or fight for the title at stake, contrary to practices of the sanctioning bodies. There are currently only two ways that a boxer can win The Ring's title: defeat the reigning champion; or win a box-off between The Ring's number-one and number-two rated contenders (or, sometimes, number-one and number-three rated). There are also only three ways that a boxer can lose The Ring's title: lose a championship fight, move to a different weight class, or retire. (The Ring does not strip its champions' titles like the sanctioning bodies do.)
    • Lineal - The Lineal Championship awarded to the boxers who earned their Lineal status anywhere between the 1990s to 2002, when The Ring stopped giving belts to world champions. The Ring champion is not necessarily the Lineal Champion.
  • Minor Entities: International Boxing Organization (IBO), International Boxing Association (IBA), International Boxing Council (IBC), International Boxing Board (IBB), International Boxing League (IBL), International Boxing Union (IBU), Global Boxing Association (GBA), Global Boxing Council (GBC), Global Boxing Federation GBF, Global Boxing Organization (GBO), Global Boxing Union (GBU), National Boxing Association (NBA), Transcontinental World Boxing Association (TWBA), Universal Boxing Association (UBA), Universal Boxing Council (UBC), Universal Boxing Federation (UBF), Universal Boxing Organization (UBO), UNIBOX UNIBOX, United States Boxing Council (USBC), World Athletic Association (WAA), World Boxing Board (WBB), World Boxing Championship Committee (WBCC), World Boxing Empire (WBE), World Boxing Foundation (WBF), World Boxing Institute (WBI), World Boxing League (WBL), World Boxing Network (WBN), World Boxing Union (WBU), World Cup of Boxing (WCOB), World Junior Boxing Federation (WJBF), World Tournament Boxing Federation (WTBF) and the World United Boxing Association (WUBA).
    The International Boxing Association (IBA) is not to be confused with the International Boxing Association (AIBA), a French acronym for Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur, which sanctions amateur matches.
    The National Boxing Association (NBA) was established in 1984 and is not to be confused with the original National Boxing Association that was established in 1921 and changed its name to World Boxing Association (WBA) in 1962.

The fighters that compose this group are classified in two different categories depending on the level of championships won:

• Major Titles: - Bob Fitzsimmons (UK/NZ), Tony Canzoneri (USA), Barney Ross (USA), Henry Armstrong (USA), Emile Griffith (VI), Wilfred Benítez (PR), Alexis Argüello (NIC), Roberto Durán (PAN), Wilfredo Gómez (PR), Ray Charles Leonard (USA), Thomas Hearns (USA), Jeff Fenech (AUS), Héctor Camacho (PR), Julio César Chávez (MEX), Iran Barkley (USA), Duke McKenzie (UK), Pernell Whitaker (USA), Mike McCallum (JAM), Wilfredo Vázquez (PR), Oscar De La Hoya (USA), Roy Jones Jr. (USA), Leo Gamez (VEN), Félix Trinidad (PR); Johnny Tapia (USA); James Toney (USA), Shane Mosley (USA), Manny Pacquiao (PHI), Erik Morales (MEX), Marco Antonio Barrera (MEX), Floyd Mayweather, Jr.(USA), Juan Manuel Márquez (MEX), Jorge Arce (MEX), Fernando Montiel (MEX), Miguel Ángel Cotto (PR), Koki Kameda (JPN), Nonito Donaire (PHI), Robert Guerrero (USA). Thirty-seven (37) fighters in total.

• Minor Titles: - Vinny Pazienza (USA), Roger Mayweather (USA), Lester Ellis (Aus), Bobby Czyz (USA), Joey Gamache (USA), James "Buddy" McGirt (USA), Orlando Canizales (USA), Greg Haugen (USA), Mauricio Pastrana (COL), Junior Jones (USA), Cassius Baloyi (SA), Lehlohonolo Ledwaba (SA), Sirimongkol Singwangcha (THAI), Mzukisi Sikali (SA), Danny Romero (USA), Silvio Branco (Italy), Damaen Kelly (IRL), Rob Calloway (USA), and Zab Judah (USA), Vic Darchinyan (ARM/AUS). Twenty (20) champions in total needed a third championship belt from a 'minor world' boxing organization to get their status as Triple Champions in three different divisions.