A Betting Guide to the Boxing Welterweight Division

A Betting Guide to the Welterweight Division

When you think of the welterweight division, you tend to think of the American dominance, at present Errol Spence Jr holds the WBC & IBF titles whilst Terence Crawford holds the WBO title, both these men being American and this is the weight division where the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr, Shawn Porter, Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley have all held the belts in recent years, all of which are American fighters.

Manny Pacquiao does buck the trend, the Philipino is the current WBA champion and a former two-time WBO champion. In fact, there are only three boxers other than Manny to hold the belt who was not American since 2011, Marcos Maidana (WBA 2013-14) was Argentinian, Kell Brook (IBF 2014-17) was British and Jeff Horn (WBO 2017-18) was Australian.

Current Welterweight Champions

Even when you look at the weight division north of this one the Americans have their fair share of the belts, in the Super Welterweight or also known as the Light Middleweight division, Jermell Charlo holds the WBA, WBC & IBF titles whilst in the Light Welterweight division, there are only one boxer who are stopping their dominance, Brian Castaño holds the WBO Light Middleweight title. In the Light Welterweight division, it is dominance from the Brit Josh Taylor who is the unified champion holding all of the belts.

The History of the Welterweight Division

This weight division is open to weights of 140-147 lbs and is one of the original eight 'Glamour' divisions, the light welterweight division was introduced in 1920 and formally recognised in 1959.

Whilst the Americans currently reign the division, the three longest-reigning champions all come from south of the border, Puerto Rican Félix Trinidad tops the list having held the IBF title for over six years and eight months, he made fifteen successful defences of his title before giving up the belt when moving up to light-middleweight.

Mexican Antonio Margarito is next on the list, he held the WBO title for over five years and three months making a total of seven successful defences before losing it to Paul Williams, he did later go on to reclaim the belt with a victory over Miguel Cotta.

Cuban José Nápoles is third on the list, he held both the WBA & WBC titles and made a total of eleven successful defences of those titles, it was late in his career that he picked up the title with that happening in his 65th bout and retained the belts in his next three fights before losing them, he then won them back and retained then eleven times before losing the John Stracey which was his final fight in 1976.

Longest Reigning Welterweight Champions

1. Felix Trinidad - 6 years, 8 months, 14 days (IBF)
2. Antonio Margarito - 5 years, 3 months, 28 days (WBO)
3. José Nápoles - 4 years, 6 months, 2 days (WBA, WBC)
4. Errol Spence Jnr - 4 years, 3 months, 15 days (IBF, WBC)
5. Floyd Mayweather Jr - 4 years, 1 month, 18 days (WBC)

Current Welterweight Rankings

Here are the current Welterweight rankings: