Barry Hugman's History of World Championship Boxing

Barry Hugman's History of World Championship Boxing

Having spent many years researching the history of world championship boxing from the start of gloves (1871 to date), I am happy to present my findings, in association with BoxRec, as you have never seen them before. This is due to the excellent research by Harold Alderman MBE in covering the early days in Britain (English championships) and my visits to various libraries around the world, as well as accessing thousands of newspapers on the internet. Many people helped along the way and you will find them under Acknowledgements.

To produce this work, which is long overdue, wherever possible all of the leading fighters down the years since the early 1870s have had their known records analysed and cross referenced against thousands of newspapers and magazines in order to find the weight that their prime contests were made at. And work continues.

Current weight divisions have been maintained by flexing the weights from the early 1870s to those we know today and can be seen in the left-hand column as a point of reference.

Fights (of ten rounds or more, other than where a title claim changed hands over a shorter distance) that are listed in chronological order within those weight divisions are those that were seen as title claims in Britain, America, Australia and the rest of the world prior to standardized weights being in place, along with all recognised world title fights since. Australian title fights are listed separately prior to 1909

This is not just a list of fights, it is the history of world championship boxing, carrying a fight report, the weights of the fighters, all manner of risk fights of less than ten rounds, including no-decision contests, black title fights, politics, fights leading to championship bouts where applicable, eliminators, etc, etc. Referring to the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO (I go no further than those commissions, apart from recording The Ring magazine champions since 2002), as far as I am concerned where there is a 'super' champion in place the next level down is a 'second tier' champion followed by an 'interim' champion. These are covered within the text.

To follow, initially go by (lbs) until you reach standard weights. You can then trace by recognition; ie: WORLD, NBA, NY, IBU, WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, etc, which will allow you to remain in sequence. In certain cases prior to full recognition, I have tried to separate additional information relating to fights that happened in Britain and America at the same weight.

After clicking on to a fight for relative details, a further click on any fighter mentioned will take you to his record on BoxRec. You can then move from fighter to fighter, biographies and pictures, etc. There are several early British fighters' records that are still missing, but Harold Alderman will aim to produce them as soon as possible along with additional fights for other men of the time.

If you wish to find all entries relating to a fighter right across the site, click on his name within a fight report and then press on 'what links here' in the sidebar. You next click on the fights listed for the requisite information.

To find the names of all those mentioned within a specific weight division, click on any fighter from that division and then click on the Index.

As a work in progress, fight reports from 2006 onwards have still to be completed.

If you wish to see updates, go to Recent Changes in the sidebar.

http://boxrec.com/hugman/index.php/Barry_Hugman's_History_of_World_Championship_Boxing