Here we are, on the final day of 2024! In just a few hours, we’ll step into a new year filled with anticipation for even bigger boxing events. But before we bid farewell to a year packed with unforgettable boxing action, have you ever wondered who the longest-reigning titleholders in the sport are? Spoiler alert: Gervonta Davis and Canelo Alvarez are among them!

Since there’s an absolute abundance of titles in the sport, this list will only recognize the four major titles from WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF. It will also cover when these champions got the titles, and who they defended against to give you a full picture of their achievement. So, without any further ado, here are the longest-reigning titleholders in boxing!

Gervonta Davis: WBA lightweight champion

Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis has showcased his dominance across multiple weight classes. The Baltimore native first captured the IBF super featherweight title in January 2017 with a stunning knockout victory over José Pedraza. However, his reign was short-lived, as he lost the title in August of the same year due to missing weight ahead of his bout against Francisco Fonseca.

Still, he didn’t remain beltless for long when he defeated Jesús Cuellar in April 2018 to win the vacant WBA ‘super’ featherweight title. Davis defended the title twice after that against Hugo Ruiz and Ricardo Núñez before moving up to the lightweight division. His first fight in the division was against Yuriorkis Gamboa in December 2019, in which Gervonta Davis won the WBA ‘regular’ lightweight title—starting his long reign as the sole master of the title. 

In his next two fights, Gervonta Davis defended his WBA ‘super’ featherweight title against Léo Santa Cruz and Mario Barrios, the latter being the fight where his ‘super’ title in the division was updated to ‘regular.’ Davis, at this point, was presented with the choice to either continue defending the super featherweight title or his WBA ‘regular’ lightweight title. Gervonta Davis chose the latter. 

He went on to defend the WBA ‘regular’ lightweight title against Rolando Romero, Héctor García, and Ryan Garcia. Now, in 2023, Devin Haney vacated all the belts in the division to move up to super lightweight, as a result, Gervonta Davis became the sole WBA champion in the division. Davis’ last bout with Frank Martin, where he defended his WBA lightweight title.  

Canelo Alvarez: WBC/WBA super middleweight champion

Saul Canelo Alvarez has held titles in four different weight divisions, including super middleweight, junior middleweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight. However, he currently holds the WBC, WBA, and WBO super middleweight titles. Meaning, we will cover his title run in his current weight class, where he happens to have held the title for the longest. 

Having defeated Sergey Kovalev in the light heavyweight division in November 2019, Canelo decided to move to super middleweight, where he first fought Callum Smith for the WBC and WBA titles. He comfortably zoomed past Smith to acquire the title and defended them against Avni Yildirim. In May of 2021, the Mexican superstar squared off against Billy Joe Saunders for the WBO title, staking his WBC and WBA titles on the line. 

Because of the animosity between the two, Canelo knocked out Saunders in the 8th round to retain his two belts and get Saunders’ WBO strap. ‘Cinnamon’ then crossed paths with the then IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant, and defeated him to become the undisputed king of the division. 

Luckily for Canelo, he fought Dmitry Bivol for the WBA light heavyweight title, so his super middleweight belts were safe, as he lost the fight but kept his undisputed status in super middleweight. Canelo bounced back with a win over Gennadiy Golovkin, defending all his belts. He continued his dominance against John Ryder, Jermell Charlo, and Jaime Munguia.

However, come 2024, Canelo was stripped of his IBF belt as he chose to fight Edgar Berlanga, instead of his IBF mandatory William Scull. 

Oleksandr Usyk: IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight title

Interestingly enough, Oleksandr Usyk is one of only three boxers to win world titles in both cruiserweight and heavyweight, along with Evander Holyfield and David Haye. However, his run in the heavyweight division was much shorter. Having conquered the cruiserweight division in July 2021 by collecting all four belts, Usyk decided to move up to heavyweight. 

After defeating Derek Chisora in October 2020, the Ukrainian got a shot at Anthony Joshua’s IBF, WBA, and WBO titles on 25th September 2021. Despite being the underdog, Usyk defeated Joshua via a unanimous decision to become the new unified heavyweight champion. Almost a year later, Usyk successfully defended his three titles against Joshua in a rematch. 

In August 2023, ‘The Cat’ squared off against Daniel Dubois to defend his three titles, and came out successful by ending the fight via 9th-round knockout. Earlier this year in May, Usyk took on then-WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury for their undisputed heavyweight fight. Usyk managed to pull off a close victory to not only defend his titles but get Fury’s WBC strap and become Undisputed heavyweight champion—a first since Lennox Lewis in 1999.

The duo faced off again on 21st December in Riyadh, with Usyk emerging victorious again. However, before the rematch, Usyk relinquished his IBF belt to fight Fury. As a result, Daniel Dubois won the vacant belt by defeating Anthony Joshua. Dubois has challenged Usyk to a rematch in the aftermath of his win over Fury, so the Ukrainian stands a chance of becoming a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion. 

However, did you know none of these three have held their titles the longest? 

Who is the longest titleholder?

Artur Beterbiev is the current title holder, who has held on to his IBF light heavyweight title for the longest time at the end of 2024. He originally acquired the belt all the way back in November 2017 after defeating Enrico Koelling. He went on to defend his title twice against Callum Johnson and Radivoje Kalajdzic before fighting Oleksandr Gvozdyk for the latter’s WBC light heavyweight title alongside his own IBF belt. 

Beterbiev knocked out Gvozdyk in the 10th round to unify the two belts in October 2019. The Canadian resident followed that with two title defenses against Adam Deines and Marcus Browne. In June 2022, Beterbiev crossed paths with Joe Smith Jr. for the latter’s WBO light heavyweight title and successfully earned his third belt by knocking out Smith in the second round. 

Beterbiev would defend his three titles twice against Anthony Yarde and Callum Smith before defeating Dmitry Bivol via unanimous decision in October earlier this year for Bivol’s WBA strap, becoming the first undisputed light heavyweight champion since Roy Jones Jr in 1999. The pair is slated to meet again in February 2025, which could see Beterbiev lose all his belts. 

Honorable mentions

WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara has held his WBA middleweight title since defeating Thomas LaManna on 1st May 2021. He has since defended his title three times against Gary O’Sullivan, Michael Zerafa, and, more recently, in September 2024, against former champion Danny Garcia. 

WBO welterweight champion Eimantas Stanionis defeated Radzhab Butaev in April 2022 to win the WBA welterweight strap. Stanionis didn’t appear in the ring for the entirety of 2023 and defeated Gabriel Maestre in May 2024 to defend his title. Finally, Zhanibek Alimkhanuly won his interim WBO middleweight title by defeating Danny Dignum in May 2022.

In November of the same month, he defeated Denzel Bentley to obtain the full version of the belt. Alimkhanuly defended it once against Steven Butler in May 2023 before defeating Vincenzo Gualtieri in October of the same year to acquire Gualtieri’s IBF middleweight title. In October 2024, he defended his two titles against Andrei Mikhailovich. 

As we saw, Gervonta Davis, Canelo Alvarez, Oleksandr Usyk, Artur Beterbiev, and others make up the list for holding on to their titles for the longest. Were you shocked to learn some of these names? Do you think Gervonta Davis deserves his spot since he was elevated as the WBA’s sole champion?