# List of British world boxing champions

This is a list of British boxers who have won a world championship by one of the four major sanctioning organisations – the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) – as well as those awarded by The Ring. Additionally, prior to 1962, world champions were recognised by public consensus (world), and later by the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) and the National Boxing Association (NBA).

## List of champions
### Heavyweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Bob Fitzsimmons | World | 1897 – 1899 | 0 |
| 2 | Lennox Lewis | WBC | 1992 – 1994 | 3 |
| 3 | Michael Bentt | WBO | 1993 – 1994 | 0 |
| 4 | Herbie Hide | WBO | 1994 – 1995 | 0 |
| 5 | Frank Bruno | WBC | 1995 – 1996 | 0 |
| 6 | Henry Akinwande | WBO | 1996 – 1997 | 2 |
| 7 | Lennox Lewis (2) | WBA, WBC, IBF | 1997 – 2001 | 9 |
| 8 | Herbie Hide (2) | WBO | 1997 –1999 | 2 |
| 9 | Lennox Lewis (3) | WBC, IBF, The Ring | 2001 – 2003 | 2 |
| 10 | David Haye | WBA | 2009 – 2011 | 2 |
| 11 | Tyson Fury | WBA, IBF, WBO, The Ring | 2015 – 2016 | 0 |
| 12 | Anthony Joshua | WBA, IBF, WBO | 2016 – 2019 | 6 |
| 13 | Anthony Joshua (2) | WBA, IBF, WBO | 2019 – 2021 | 1 |
| 14 | Tyson Fury (2) | WBC, The Ring | 2020 – 2022 | 2 |
| 15 | Daniel Dubois | IBF | 2024 – present | 1 |

### Cruiserweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Glenn McCrory | IBF | 1989 – 1990 | 1 |
| 2 | Carl Thompson | WBO | 1997 – 1999 | 2 |
| 3 | Johnny Nelson | WBO | 1999 – 2006 | 13 |
| 4 | Enzo Maccarinelli | WBO | 2006 – 2008 | 4 |
| 5 | David Haye | WBA, WBC, WBO, The Ring | 2007 – 2008 | 1 |
| 6 | Tony Bellew | WBC | 2016 | 1 |
| 7 | Lawrence Okolie | WBO | 2021 – 2023 | 3 |
| 8 | Chris Billam-Smith | WBO | 2023 – 2024 | 2 |

### Light-heavyweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Bob Fitzsimmons | World | 1903 – 1905 | 0 |
| 2 | Freddie Mills | NYSAC, NBA, The Ring | 1948 – 1950 | 0 |
| 3 | John Conteh | WBC | 1974 – 1977 | 3 |
| 4 | Dennis Andries | WBC | 1986 – 1987 | 1 |
| 5 | Dennis Andries (2) | WBC | 1989 | 0 |
| 6 | Dennis Andries (3) | WBC | 1990 – 1991 | 2 |
| 7 | Clinton Woods | IBF | 2005 – 2007 | 7 |
| 8 | Joe Calzaghe | The Ring | 2008 – 2009 | 1 |
| 9 | Nathan Cleverly | WBO | 2011 – 2013 | 5 |
| 10 | Nathan Cleverly (2) | WBA | 2016 – 2017 | 0 |

### Super-middleweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Murray Sutherland | IBF | 1984 | 0 |
| 2 | Nigel Benn | WBO | 1990 | 1 |
| 3 | Chris Eubank | WBO | 1991 – 1995 | 14 |
| 4 | Nigel Benn (2) | WBC | 1992 – 1996 | 9 |
| 5 | Robin Reid | WBC | 1996 – 1997 | 3 |
| 6 | Joe Calzaghe | WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring | 1997 – 2008 | 21 |
| 7 | Richie Woodhall | WBC | 1998 – 1999 | 2 |
| 8 | Glenn Catley | WBC | 2000 | 0 |
| 9 | Carl Froch | WBC | 2008 – 2010 | 2 |
| 10 | Carl Froch (2) | WBC | 2010 – 2011 | 1 |
| 11 | Brian Magee | WBA | 2012 | 0 |
| 12 | Carl Froch (3) | WBA, IBF | 2012 – 2014 | 4 |
| 13 | James DeGale | IBF | 2015 – 2017 | 3 |
| 14 | George Groves | WBA | 2017 – 2018 | 2 |
| 15 | Rocky Fielding | WBA | 2018 | 0 |
| 16 | James DeGale (2) | IBF | 2018 | 0 |
| 17 | Callum Smith | WBA, The Ring | 2018 – 2020 | 3 |
| 18 | Billy Joe Saunders | WBO | 2019 – 2021 | 2 |

### Middleweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Bob Fitzsimmons | World | 1891 – 1894 | 2 |
| 2 | Randy Turpin | NYSAC, NBA, The Ring | 1951 | 0 |
| 3 | Terry Downes | NYSAC, The Ring | 1961 | 0 |
| 4 | Alan Minter | WBA, WBC, The Ring | 1980 | 1 |
| 5 | Nigel Benn | WBO | 1990 | 1 |
| 6 | Chris Eubank | WBO | 1990 – 1991 | 3 |
| 7 | Chris Pyatt | WBO | 1993 – 1994 | 2 |
| 8 | Jason Matthews | WBO | 1999 | 0 |
| 9 | Darren Barker | IBF | 2013 | 0 |
| 10 | Billy Joe Saunders | WBO | 2015 – 2018 | 3 |

### Light-middleweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Maurice Hope | WBC | 1979 – 1981 | 3 |
| 2 | Paul Jones | WBO | 1995 – 1996 | 0 |
| 3 | Liam Smith | WBO | 2015 – 2016 | 2 |

### Welterweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Matt Wells | World | 1914 – 1915 | 0 |
| 2 | John H. Stracey | WBC, The Ring | 1975 – 1976 | 1 |
| 3 | Lloyd Honeyghan | WBC, IBF, The Ring | 1986 – 1987 | 3 |
| 4 | Lloyd Honeyghan (2) | WBC, The Ring | 1988 – 1989 | 1 |
| 5 | Ricky Hatton | WBA | 2006 | 0 |
| 6 | Kell Brook | IBF | 2014 – 2017 | 3 |

### Light-welterweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Jack Kid Berg | NBA, The Ring | 1930 – 1931 | 14 |
| 2 | Terry Marsh | IBF | 1987 | 1 |
| 3 | Ricky Hatton | WBA, IBF, The Ring | 2005 – 2009 | 5 |
| 4 | Junior Witter | WBC | 2006 – 2008 | 2 |
| 5 | Gavin Rees | WBA | 2007 – 2008 | 0 |
| 6 | Amir Khan | WBA, IBF | 2009 – 2011 | 5 |
| 7 | Ricky Burns | WBA | 2016 – 2017 | 1 |
| 8 | Josh Taylor | WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring | 2019 – 2023 | 3 |

### Lightweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Freddie Welsh | World | 1914 – 1917 | – |
| 2 | Ken Buchanan | WBA, WBC, The Ring, NYSAC | 1970 – 1972 | 2 |
| 3 | Jim Watt | WBC, The Ring | 1979 – 1981 | 4 |
| 4 | Ricky Burns | WBO | 2012 – 2014 | 4 |
| 5 | Anthony Crolla | WBA | 2016 – 2017 | 1 |
| 6 | Terry Flanagan | WBO | 2015 – 2017 | 5 |

### Super-featherweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Barry Jones | WBO | 1997 | 0 |
| 2 | Alex Arthur | WBO | 2008 | 0 |
| 3 | Nicky Cook | WBO | 2008 – 2009 | 0 |
| 4 | Ricky Burns | WBO | 2011 – 2012 | 2 |

### Featherweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Ben Jordan | World | 1899 | – |
| 2 | Howard Winstone | WBC | 1968 | 0 |
| 3 | Paul Hodgkinson | WBC | 1991 – 1993 | 3 |
| 4 | Colin McMillan | WBO | 1992 | 0 |
| 5 | Steve Robinson | IBF | 1993 – 1995 | 7 |
| 6 | Naseem Hamed | WBC, IBF, WBO | 1995 – 2000 | 15 |
| 7 | Paul Ingle | IBF | 1999 – 2000 | 1 |
| 8 | Scott Harrison | WBO | 2002 – 2003 | 1 |
| 9 | Scott Harrison (2) | WBO | 2003 – 2005 | 6 |
| 10 | Lee Selby | IBF | 2015 – 2018 | 4 |
| 11 | Carl Frampton | WBA | 2016 – 2017 | 0 |
| 12 | Josh Warrington | IBF | 2018 – 2021 | 3 |
| 13 | Leigh Wood | WBA | 2021 – 2023 | 2 |

### Super-bantamweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Duke McKenzie | WBO | 1992 – 1993 | 0 |
| 2 | Scott Quigg | WBA | 2013 – 2016 | 6 |
| 3 | Carl Frampton | WBA, IBF | 2014 – 2016 | 3 |
| 4 | Isaac Dogboe | WBO | 2018 | 1 |

### Bantamweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Joe Bowker | World | 1904 – 1905 | 1 |
| 2 | Duke McKenzie | WBO | 1991 – 1992 | 2 |
| 3 | Robbie Regan | WBO | 1996 | 0 |
| 4 | Jamie McDonnell | IBF | 2013 | 0 |
| 5 | Stuart Hall | IBF | 2013 – 2014 | 1 |
| 6 | Paul Butler | IBF | 2014 | 0 |
| 7 | Jamie McDonnell (2) | WBA | 2014 – 2018 | 6 |
| 8 | Lee Haskins | IBF | 2015 – 2017 | 2 |
| 9 | Ryan Burnett | WBA, IBF | 2017 – 2018 | 2 |

### Super-flyweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
| 1 | Kal Yafai | WBA | 2016 – 2020 | 4 | |

### Flyweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) |
| 1 | Sid Smith | World | 1911 – 1913 | 1 |
| 2 | Bill Ladbury | World | 1913 – 1914 | 1 |
| 3 | Percy Jones | World | 1914 | 1 |
| 4 | Tancy Lee | World | 1915 | – |
| 5 | Joe Symonds | World | 1915 – 1916 | – |
| 6 | Jimmy Wilde | World | 1916 – 1923 | – |
| 7 | Jackie Brown | World, NBA | 1932 – 1935 | 3 |
| 8 | Benny Lynch | World, NBA, NYSAC, The Ring | 1935 – 1938 | 3 |
| 9 | Peter Kane | World, NBA, The Ring | 1938 – 1943 | 2 |
| 10 | Jackie Paterson | World, NBA, The Ring | 1943 – 1948 | 1 |
| 11 | Rinty Monaghan | NBA | 1948 – 1950 | 3 |
| 12 | Terry Allen | NBA, The Ring | 1950 | 0 |
| 13 | Walter McGowan | The Ring | 1966 | 0 |
| 14 | Charlie Magri | WBC | 1983 | 0 |
| 15 | Duke McKenzie | IBF | 1988 – 1989 | 1 |
| 16 | Dave McAuley | IBF | 1989 – 1992 | 5 |
| 17 | Pat Clinton | WBO | 1992 – 1993 | 1 |
| 18 | Charlie Edwards | WBC | 2018 – 2019 | 2 |
| 19 | Sunny Edwards | IBF | 2021 – 2023 | 3 |

### Light-flyweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
| 1 | Paul Weir | WBO | 1994 – 1995 | 1 | |

### Mini-flyweight

| No. | Name | Recognition | Date | Title defence(s) | Ref. |
| 1 | Paul Weir | WBO | 1993 | 1 | |