Never heard anyone question the validity of boxing being a sport before. Golf, bowling, sure. Those aren't real sports. Questioning whether we should continue a game of who can get punched in the head and stay concious longer, sure. But it's certainly a sport.
Actually, Botha is not officially recognized as champ by the IBF as the bout's result when he "won" the IBF title was changed to no contest so technically he should not be here. Also, Lee Savold was not recognized by any of the serious sanctioning bodies either...
Botha's title was vacated after he failed a drug test following the fight against Axel Schulz. From wikipedia's article "List of world heavyweight boxing champions": "Following its withdrawal of recognition from George Foreman, the International Boxing Federation sanctioned a December 9, 1995, match between Francois Botha and Axel Schulz for its championship. Botha won the bout by split decision, but the bout result and Botha's championship title were vacated after Botha's post-fight drug test revealed he had taken illegal anabolic steroids. A subsequent bout between Schulz and Michael Moorer was sanctioned for the IBF championship."
Thanks for this. Great quiz. Got 42 out of the first 52. After that, big ol' gaps. No idea who most of the champions are from the last fifteen or so years.
Fun fact, the only Canadian heavyweight boxing champion is Tommy Burns. You can watch some of his fights on YouTube because boxing was so popular that title bouts were often recorded as early as about 1900.
Crikey, I'd never heard of the one 2021 champ. I assumed one boxer had three belts, the other one and that was the lot, not that there was another WBA belt.
I’m just wondering why you’ve include Lee Savold, since he never held any of the four main belts, only the European and British (EBU) version of the world title, which he won from Bruce Woodock but had withdrawn from him after his loss to Joe Louis.