Oleksandr Usyk etched his name into both the record books and into boxing legend with his undisputed heavyweight title win over Tyson Fury on Saturday night, becoming the first ever four-belt champion of the division and the second fighter to become undisputed at both cruiserweight and heavyweight.
This achievement also made Usyk the fifth fighter to become a multi-divisional undisputed champion since the dawn of the four-belt era and we at Boxing Social to rank the careers of those who have accomplished the feat.
5. Claressa Shields
Eccentric and skilful, Claressa Shields is must-see TV for any fan of women’s boxing and for any fans of boxing 101 as a whole. In just 14 professional contests, Shields has conquered both the super-welterweight division and the middleweight division without hardly losing a round and is quite possibly the pound-for-pound greatest female fighter on the planet.
Shields became undisputed at 154lbs with a win over Marie Dicaire in March 2021 but her abilities were truly shown when she travelled across the pond and outpointed Savannah Marshall 18 months later, becoming the undisputed middleweight champion in the process and the first to do so in two divisions in the four-belt era.
Although the Marshall fight appears close on the cards, it was nothing less than a harshly scored masterclass delivered by Shields. However, the lack of a talent pool outside of Marshall in those divisions means that it would be tough for Shields to rank any higher than fifth.
4. Naoya Inoue
It feels like a cardinal sin to rank Naoya Inoue at fourth given his accomplishments over the last couple of years but the reality is that, as with Shields, the names on his résumé are not enough to trump those above him – at least not yet.
Inoue’s toughest clash came with the legendary Nonito Donaire back in November 2019, who he dismissed with a second-round knockout win two-and-a-half years later.
This made ‘The Monster’ a three-belt unified champion and set up a showdown with Paul Butler, who put survival first in the undisputed bantamweight title bout but was still stopped by the Japanese phenomenon in the eleventh-round.
The champion then vacated his belts in favour of a move up to 122lbs, where he faced the undefeated poster boy of the division, Stephen Fulton, for the unified WBC and WBO titles in what many deemed to be a 50/50 affair beforehand. It was a slaughter.
Fulton was nailed with a prodigious combination before being stopped in the eighth-round, cementing Inoue’s claim to the pound-for-pound throne, a claim that was further cemented with a knockout over the other unified champion, Marlon Tapales, just five months later to become the undisputed super-bantamweight title-holder.
Inoue is now recognised as one of the ‘faces of boxing’ and is rightfully considered to be a global superstar. Although, to truly emerge as the greatest fighter of the four-belt era, there is a feeling that Inoue must replicate this form in the featherweight division and at 30-years-old there is plenty of time for him to do so.
3. Katie Taylor
If the question was which of these fighters has done the most for the sport – Katie Taylor would be top of the list by an extremely wide margin, taking the women’s scene to previously unimaginable heights and becoming a household name in the process.
Taylor lived up to her extraordinary amateur pedigree and continued to find success as a professional, defeating Delfine Persoon in 2019 to become the undisputed lightweight champion.
Unlike others on the list, Taylor was able to defend her title on numerous occasions, making a total of seven defences of the often easily fragmented undisputed crown, including a modern-day classic against Amanda Serrano.
The Irishwoman would then move up to super-lightweight in pursuit of Chantelle Cameron’s undisputed super-lightweight throne, but picked up a first career defeat when they met last May.
Six months later, Taylor was able to get her revenge on Cameron and become a multi-divisional undisputed champion, although the scoring of the affair was deemed controversial by many.
2. Terence Crawford
Terence Crawford has proven himself to be worthy of superstar status, putting himself into the conversation as one of this millennium’s most impressive, slick and ruthless fighters.
‘Bud’ first conquered the super-lightweight scene with wins over Thomas Dulorme, Viktor Postol and Julius Indongo, but it was his recent run at welterweight that will live longer in the memory.
A win over WBO champion Jeff Horn on his 147lb debut kickstarted his life at the weight in style and Crawford would defeat the likes of Amir Khan, Kell Brook and Shawn Porter in the years that followed.
Crawford made six defence of the belt before finally landing the long-awaited undisputed clash with his rival Errol Spence Jr. and entered the ring as the underdog.
However, on fight night it was nothing short of a brutal beatdown. Crawford got after Spence from the opening bell onwards and battered the unified champion from pillar to post before stopping his foe in the ninth-round in one of the most impressive displays in recent memory.
1. Oleksandr Usyk
Regardless of the quality of the others amongst this list, Oleksandr Usyk stands alone in terms of the quality of opposition that he cleaned out during his runs at cruiserweight and heavyweight.
The London 2012 gold medallist became undisputed cruiserweight champion with three wins that were all on away soil, defeating the undefeated trio Krzysztof Glowacki, Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev in their home countries of Poland, Latvia and Russia.
The old-school boxing mastermind then made the fabled move up to heavyweight, where many felt his lack of power would see him bullied, but instead he toppled the unified champion Anthony Joshua in just his third bout at the weight, as the away fighter once again.
Usyk would then win the rematch against ‘AJ’, knock out Daniel Dubois and move on to the historic battle with Tyson Fury, where he overcame a 40lb weight disadvantage and a six-inch height deficit to put an end to both the undisputed record and reign of ‘The Gypsy King’ – a man who seemed tailor-made to be Usyk’s kryptonite.
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