The undisputed title is the crown jewel of boxing, a sign that a fighter has truly conquered their respective division, allowing them to stand proud and confidently confirmed that they are the best fighter in the planet for their weight. With six undisputed contests already having taken place during 2024 and another three being scheduled, it seems as though the trend of these legacy-defining contests will continue in 2025 – with a Brit determined to participate in one of them.
Naoya Inoue became a two-weight undisputed champion when he halted Marlon Tapales in late 2023 and he has been able to defence all four of his super-bantamweight titles on two occasions this year, stopping both Luis Nery and TJ Doheny to extend his undefeated record to 28-0, 25KOs.
In December, Inoue will make a third defence of the 122lb marbles as he fights Australia’s Sam Goodman in Tokyo, before plans for a mammoth 2025 that will likely include showdowns with both Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Junto Nakatani.
Elsewhere, legendary pound-for-pound superstar Canelo Alvarez defended all four super-middleweight titles when he dominated and outclassed fellow Mexican Jaime Munguia back in May – although Alvarez has since been stripped of the IBF world title, which now controversially belongs to William Scull.
Later that month, Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury went toe-to-toe in a first undisputed heavyweight title contest since 1999 and it was the Ukrainian who came out on top in an instant classic. Those two will rematch in two months’ time but will do so without the IBF title, after Daniel Dubois captured the belt following Usyk’s decision to vacate it.
Meanwhile, Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol finally met in razor-tight affair for the undisputed light-heavyweight title earlier this month, Beterbiev getting the nod on the scorecards in what was a tactically mouthwatering contest edged by the front-footed aggression of the serial knockout-artist.
As for the women, Seniesa Estrada and Yokasta Valle fought in the only female undisputed title bout of the year, Estrada doing enough in their minimumweight clash in March and then announcing her retirement from the sport last week – one of few champions in history to hang up the gloves with an undefeated record.
Additionally this weekend sees Gabriela Fundora and Gabriela Alaniz meet for all four belts in the flyweight division, whilst Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano are scheduled to rematch one another for Taylor’s undisputed super-lightweight titles, in a record-breaking bout on the Paul-Tyson undercard on November 16th.
Speaking with the BBC ahead of her fight with Patricia Bergult, Chantelle Cameron explained that the victor of Taylor-Serrano II will ‘need to fight her’.
“Whoever wins out of Serrano and Taylor, I will be in a position where they’ll need to fight me because I’m mandatory [challenger to the WBC title],”
“If I don’t win [against Berghult], I won’t see the belts again. I’ve got loads of faith in [Queensberry] to hunt them down,”
“When it comes to fighting for those world titles again, I am going to get them back because I will be improved and better.
“I was undisputed before and with these improvements I know I will be undisputed again.”
Cameron faces Berghult on Saturday night in Birmingham on the Davies-Masoud undercard in what will be her second fight with Grant Smith in her corner. Should she be successful, her dream of landing a trilogy showdown with Katie Taylor may come true.
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