Former professional Boxer Frank Monkhouse delivers knock-out content for OLBG as our Boxing betting expert
What is the Heavyweight Division?
When people talk about boxing, the majority of the time it will revolve around the heavyweight division, this is the division which most fans take a liking to the most, this is where the big guns put on spectacular displays that everyone wants a ringside ticket for!
The heavyweight division is open to fighters who weigh 200lbs or more, there are two other 'heavyweight' divisions just below this main one, the Cruiserweight division for weights or 175-200lbs and the Light Heavyweight division for those between 168-175lbs.
When the term 'Heavyweight' is discussed there are certain boxers who come to mind depending on the age group, it would be Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Joe Frazier & Rocky Marciano for the older generation as well as George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Evander Holyfield & Mike Tyson.
The younger generation has been treated to the Klitschko's who dominated the heavyweight scene for years as well as the likes of Lennox Lewis & David Haye. Whilst those watching now would appreciate the current crop of 'The Gypsy King' Tyson Fury, 'AJ' Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder and Oleksandr Usyk.
Current Top Five Ranked Heavyweight Boxers
| Division | Rank | Fighter |
|---|---|---|
| Heavyweight | CH | Oleksandr Usyk |
| Heavyweight | 1st | Tyson Fury |
| Heavyweight | 2nd | Anthony Joshua |
| Heavyweight | 3rd | Joseph Parker |
| Heavyweight | 4th | Zhilei Zhang |
| Heavyweight | 5th | Agit Kabayel |
Current Heavyweight Champions
| Organization | Champion |
|---|---|
| WBA | Oleksandr Usyk |
| WBC | Oleksandr Usyk |
| IBF | Daniel Dubois |
| WBO | Oleksandr Usyk |
The interesting angle which usually comes into play when you are in the heavyweight scene is how well you bounce back from defeat, we are talking boxers who pack a punch in this division and it only takes one punch to put them down for the count and it can happen to the best of boxers.
Looking at the champion and the top five boxers in the heavyweight division at the time of writing, there are only two boxers who remain unbeaten, Agit Kabayel (25-0-0) and Oleksandr Usyk (22-0-0) who are the only boxers with a 100% record.
Who are the best boxing tipsters? Why not head over to the Best Boxing Tipsters page to see which tipsters currently have tips, these come from tipsters who have shown a profit over the past twelve months for their boxing tips.
Previous Heavyweight Champions of the World
In the history of boxing, there has been a total of 104 changes of the belts, that is not individual champions as plenty have lost and then regained their titles, in fact in total, 18 boxers have had more than one reign as the champion, five boxers have had three reigns as champions, those five were Muhammad Ali, Michael Moore, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko.
The United States has dominated the history of this division, they have accounted for 55 of the 86, that is some 64% of the heavyweight champions! The next best is the United Kingdom which has had 8 heavyweight champions and the likes of David Haye, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua have been on top of the division in recent years. The only other countries to produce multiple heavyweight world champions are Canada (4), Russia (3), Ukraine (3), Italy (2) and South Africa (2).
Longest Reigning Heavyweight Champions
- Joe Louis (11 years, 8 months, 8 days)
- Wladimir Klitschko (9 years, 7 months, 6 days)
- Larry Holmes (7 years, 3 months, 12 days)
- Jack Dempsey (7 years, 2 months, 19 days)
- John L. Sullivan (7 years, 0 months, 9 days)
Joe Louis holds the record for the longest-reigning champion having held the belts for eleven years, eight months and eight days during which time he successfully defended his title a total of twenty-six times.
It did look for some time that Wladimir Klitschko would get close to that record but he fell short when being defeated by Tyson Fury in the 19th defence of the title, his reign lasted for nine years, seven months and six days whilst there are only three other boxers to pass the seven-year reign as champion, Larry Holmes, Jack Dempsey and John Sullivan.
In terms of total time spent as champion, so this includes a second or third spell as champion, Wladimir Klitschko does beat Joe Louis as he has spent exactly twelve years with the belts in his possession, just under four months longer than Louis with Muhammad Ali third, Lennox Lewis fourth and Wald's brother Vitali fifth on the list.
Cruiserweight and Light Heavyweight Divisions
The Cruiserweight and Light Heavyweight divisions are not as glamourous as the heavyweight division, they are seen more as a stepping stone to the big league and are much needed too, there is 20lbs between light heavyweight and heavyweight so you need those two divisions, especially for fighters starting out, fighters who will gradually build more muscle and put on more weight and will eventually end up in the heavyweight division.
Current Top Five Ranked Cruiserweight Boxers
| Division | Rank | Fighter |
|---|---|---|
| Cruiserweight | CH | Jai Opetaia |
| Cruiserweight | 1st | Lawrence Okolie |
| Cruiserweight | 2nd | Mairis Briedis |
| Cruiserweight | 3rd | Yuniel Dorticos |
| Cruiserweight | 4th | Badou Jack |
| Cruiserweight | 5th | Ilunga Makabu |
Current Top Five Ranked Light Heavyweight Boxers
| Division | Rank | Fighter |
|---|---|---|
| Light Heavyweight | CH | Artur Beterbiev |
| Light Heavyweight | 1st | Dmitry Bivol |
| Light Heavyweight | 2nd | Artur Beterbiev |
| Light Heavyweight | 3rd | Callum Smith |
| Light Heavyweight | 4th | Gilberto Ramírez |
| Light Heavyweight | 5th | Joe Smith Jr. |
Author Information
We are proud to have Frank Monkhouse on our expert teams at OLBG, maintaining our relationship since sponsoring him when he was fighting professionally, and now he delivers us top-notch boxing and fighting sport content for the OLBG pages.
Frank Monkhouse
Boxing Editor
Frank Monkhouse is a former professional boxer fighting at middleweight now turned sports betting writer supplying content from knockout-content for a range of outlets including Betfair, Coral, William Hill, World Sports Network and The Racing Post and proudly as the Boxing Betting Expert on OLBG.
👨🏫 Specialist Subjects🔬📚
It is no surprise to find Frankie is our Boxing expert, although he has a deep catalogue of work in regards to football previews as Rangers fan. Frankie has written preview for boxing events as well as working on some deep data driven boxing content for us too.
