Who is current heavyweight boxing champion

MORE: Fury plans out his next five fights. Joshua has been labeled as a super champion along with Klitschko, while Usyk earned the recognition at cruiserweight.

Joshua first won the International Boxing Federation title in April of against Charles Martin and has held the belt the longest out of his current championships. The Ring is a premiere boxing magazine that began publication in , which is also when it began awarding a linear title to each division. He previously earned it with his unanimous decision victory over Klitschko in November of but was stripped in January of due to inactivity.

If Joshua, Wilder, Fury or Usyk meet to unify world titles from all of the major sanctioning organizations, the heavyweight division will have its first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in The division has not yet had an undisputed titleholder in the four-belt era.

Tyson Fury. Deontay Wilder. Oleksandr Usyk. Likely again in London. It is now the third of the world heavyweight titles held by new champion Oleksandr Usyk. Usyk won the title with that terrific performance to dethrone Anthony Joshua courtesy of a unanimous decision in front of a crowd of more than 67, fans in London.

This avoids the confusion caused by fighters vacating some or all of their belts, or being stripped of them. The current lineal world heavyweight champion is Tyson Fury. He took that moniker in November when he defeated previous champion Wladimir Klitschko on points in Dusseldorf. Fury is still undefeated inside a ring. He confirmed his lineal status with that crushing defeat of Wilder in February and retained the title with that stoppage win in their trilogy match in October The lineal title will likely be on the line next if and when Fury meets WBC mandatory challenger Whyte.

The Ring magazine world heavyweight title is worthy of mention due to the standing the belt. It is a form of lineal title — and the publication itself is still revered in boxing circles. Wilder really looking to detonate that right hand, but not at the expense of throwing the jab and his body work.

Fury moving forward more now and firing hus jab. Wilder lands a massive right hand that ignites the crowd. What a shot. And Wilder is down! Fury pours on the punishment and Wilder looks out on his feet. Saved by the bell! Fury has picked up the pace and is throwing more punches in the second and Wilder is Wilder lands a right but Fury last two right back.

Easy round for the champion. Wilder opens with two jabs to the body and the comes out swinging, missing on a couple of lunging overhands and shots to the midsection as Fury calmly boxes off the back foot. Wilder just misses with a big right. Fury clinches and Wilder looks to get out of it quickly. Fury begins pressing forward and catches Wilder with a huge right hand at the end of round, but round one goes to Wilder.

Updated at 4. And the lights have gone down! A resounding roar rises up from the crowd. And here comes Deontay Wilder , entering as the challenger for the first time in his career.

Deontay Wilder. The crowd is getting a bit restless as we wait for Wilder to sort out his glove issue. The Who. So far, anyway. And, finally, the fighters are moments away from making their entrances.

A positively electric atmosphere at the T-Mobile Arena, which has filled up almost entirely over the last hour. Frank Sanchez has just won a unanimous decision over Efe Ajagba in a surprisingly dull round heavyweight fight.

That means Fury and Wilder will be making their ringwalks next. Elsewhere in the heavyweight division , Anthony Joshua has exercised his right to a rematch with Oleksandr Usyk after his shock defeat to the Ukrainian last month.

His return to the heavyweight summit is all the more astonishing considering he was out of the sport for more than two years amid public battles with addiction and mental illness, ballooning to nearly lbs and contemplating taking his own life. I had a chance to speak with him about it a few days ago.

My anxiety was terrible. I believe anxiety is one of the worst things that anybody could have. In the three years since Fury repurposed his first fight with Wilder into a platform to discuss his struggles with mental health , a subject once regarded as one of the last taboos in elite sport has since been thrust to the fore, most notably in the public ordeals of Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles this year.

Osaka, who last month hinted at an extended break from tennis after her early exit from the US Open, has spoken about the ways her battles with anxiety can be directly traced back to her star-making win over Serena Williams for her first major title.

And I did retire. I was out for three years. I was as low as any man could ever go, to be fair. Right on the edge of death and life. What advice would I give for young athletes coming through — the best advice I could give anybody — is get the right help straight away. I never seeked help for my mental struggle until