List of WBA world champions
Welterweight

List of WBA world champions

Section Title: Welterweight
Table Section Text: None

No.	Name	Duration of reign	Defenses	Days

1	United States Virgin Islands Emile Griffith (v. Jorge José Fernández)	December 8, 1962 – March 21, 1963	0	103

2	Cuba Luis Manuel Rodríguez	March 21, 1963 – June 8, 1963	0	179

3	United States Virgin Islands Emile Griffith (2)	June 8, 1963 – April 25, 1966r	4	1052

Griffith vacated to move up to middleweight. He lost three fights during his reign as WBA welterweight champion

6	United States Curtis Cokes (v. Manuel González)	August 24, 1966 – April 18, 1969	5	968

7	Cuba José Nápoles	April 18, 1969 – December 3, 1970	3	594

8	United States Billy Backus	December 3, 1970 – June 4, 1971	0	183

9	Cuba José Nápoles (2)	June 4, 1971 – May 1975r	9	1457

Nápoles was stripped of his WBA title for failure to sign for a fight against the WBA's No. 1-rated welterweight contender, Ángel Espada

10	Puerto Rico Ángel Espada (v. Clyde Gray)	June 28, 1975 – July 17, 1976	1	385

11	Mexico José Cuevas	July 17, 1976 – August 2, 1980	11	1862

12	United States Thomas Hearns	August 2, 1980 – September 16, 1981	3	410

13	United States Sugar Ray Leonard	September 16, 1981 – November 9, 1982r	1	829

Leonard vacated title after being diagnosed with a detached retina and announced his retirement. He would come back in 1984

14	United States Donald Curry (v. Jun-Suk Hwang)	February 13, 1983 – September 27, 1986	7	1322

15	United Kingdom Lloyd Honeyghan	September 27, 1986 – December 1986r	0	1417

Honeyghan vacated after the WBA mandated that he defend the title against South African Harold Volbrecht. Honeyghan dropped the WBA title belt into a trash can on a London street to protest the WBA's continued sanctioning of bouts involving citizens of apartheid-governed South Africa

16	United States Mark Breland (v. Harold Volbrecht)	February 6, 1987 – August 22, 1987	0	197

17	United States Marlon Starling	August 22, 1987 – July 29, 1988	2	342

Starling lost the title in his third defense in controversial fashion to Tomas Molinares. Molinares hit Starling with a punch that was clearly thrown after the bell.

18	Colombia Tomás Molinares	July 29, 1988 – December 12, 1988r	0	136

Molinares withdrew from his defense fight with Mark Breland citing severe depression. He was stripped of the title

19	United States Mark Breland (2) (v. Seung-Soon Lee)	February 4, 1989 – July 8, 1990	4	519

20	United States Aaron Davis	July 8, 1990 – January 19, 1991	0	195

21	United States Meldrick Taylor	January 19, 1991 – October 31, 1992	2	651

22	Venezuela Crisanto España	October 31, 1992 – June 4, 1994	2	581

23	Ghana Ike Quartey	June 4, 1994 – October 1998s	7	1610

Quartey was stripped of title due to inactivity

24	United States James Page (v. Andrey Pestryaev)	October 10, 1998 – 2000s	3	813

Page was stripped of title for failing to turn up for a mandatory title defense in November 2000 although he was given the chance to fight for the vacant title in February 2001

25	Guyana Andrew Lewis	February 17, 2001 – March 30, 2002	1

26	Nicaragua Ricardo Mayorga	March 30, 2002 – January 25, 2003	0	301

Mayorga fought for Super title against Vernon Forrest

26	Nicaragua Ricardo Mayorga – Super Champion (v. Vernon Forrest)	January 25, 2003 – December 13, 2003	1	322

27	United States Jose Antonio Rivera – Regular Champion (v. Michel Trabant)	September 13, 2003 – April 2, 2005	0	567

28	United States Cory Spinks – Super Champion	December 13, 2003 – February 5, 2005	2	420

29	United States Zab Judah– Super Champion	February 5, 2005 – January 7, 2006	1	336

Judah fought with Carlos Baldomir for the WBC belt as the latter didn't pay the sanctioning fee for the WBA and IBF belt.

30	United States Luis Collazo – Regular Champion	April 2, 2005 – May 13, 2006	1	406

31	United Kingdom Ricky Hatton	May 13, 2006 – August 31, 2006r	0	110

Hatton vacated to move back to super lightweight

32	Puerto Rico Miguel Cotto (v. Carlos Quintana)	December 2, 2006 – July 26, 2008	4	602

33	Mexico Antonio Margarito	July 26, 2008 – October 3, 2008	0	69

Margarito was promoted to Super champion

33	Mexico Antonio Margarito – Super Champion (Regular champ promoted)	October 3, 2008 – January 24, 2009	0	113

34	Ukraine Yuriy Nuzhnenko – Regular Champion (Interim champ promoted)	October 3, 2008 – April 10, 2009	0	189

35	United States Shane Mosley – Super champion	January 24, 2009 – May 22, 2010s	0	483

The WBA stripped Mosley of the title for not agreeing on the terms for his bout with Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who refused to pay the sanctioning fees for the title and Mosley fought without reaching a deal with the WBA.

36	Ukraine Vyacheslav Senchenko – Regular Champion	April 10, 2009 – April 30, 2012	3	1116

37	United States Paul Malignaggi	April 30, 2012 – June 22, 2013	1	418

38	United States Adrien Broner	June 22, 2013 – December 14, 2013	0	175

39	Argentina Marcos René Maidana	December 14, 2013 – May 3, 2014	0	140

Maidana fought for Super title against Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

40	United States Floyd Mayweather, Jr. – Super Champion (v. Marcos Maidana)	May 3, 2014 – January, 2016r	3	637

Mayweather stripped of title after announcing retirement following his fight with Andre Berto in October 2015

40	United States Keith Thurman – Regular Champion (interim champ promoted)	January 28, 2015 – February 7, 2017	3	741

Keith Thurman promoted to Super champion before fighting WBC champion Danny Garcia

41	United States Keith Thurman – Super Champion (regular champ promoted)	February 7, 2017 – present	2	812

42	Russia David Avanesyan – Regular Champion (interim champ promoted)	February 7, 2017 – February 18, 2017	0	11

43	United States Lamont Peterson – Regular Champion	February 18, 2017 – October 3, 2017	0	227

Peterson vacated to leave space for other contenders in the ranking

44	Argentina Lucas Matthysse – Regular Champion	January 27, 2018 - July 15, 2018	0	169

45	Philippines Manny Pacquiao – Regular Champion	July 15, 2018 - present	1	289

Sentence(s)

Manny Pacquiao currently holds the WBA (Regular) welterweight title.
Manny Pacquiao currently holds the WBA (Regular) welterweight title.
Manny Pacquiao currently holds the WBA (Regular) welterweight title.

final_sentence: Manny Pacquiao currently holds the WBA (Regular) welterweight title.
final_sentence: Manny Pacquiao currently holds the WBA (Regular) welterweight title.
final_sentence: Manny Pacquiao currently holds the WBA (Regular) welterweight title.