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From flyweight to heavyweight: Great Britian's boxing world champions

Tyson Fury suit presser Oct21

The UK is looking to add more world champions to the list this year, and Anthony Joshua is aiming to be one of them.

The heavyweight is expected to rematch Oleksandr Usyk in June for the WBA, IBF and WBO world titles, with London the expected location.
One fighter who won a rematch and returned to the top over the weekend was Josh Warrington.
The "Leeds Warrior" stopped Kiko Martinez in round seven of their featherweight clash for the IBF title and in doing so, is now a two-time world champion.
Below, we take a look at the current world champions from the UK, including Warrington.

Tyson Fury

Tyson Fury needs no introductions. He is the WBC heavyweight and Ring Magazine champion of the world and the greatest heavyweight showman since Muhammad Ali, according to his promoter Frank Warren.

His antics outside of the ring have certainly been box office down the years. The 'Gypsy King's' career appeared finished when he left the sport for more than two years amid public battles with addiction and mental illness, but he returned and proved he could still fight.
Fury pulled off one of the greatest ever boxing upsets when he beat Wladimir Klitschko to become WBC heavyweight champion of the world in 2015.

He then put his titles on the line against American Deontay Wilder in a trilogy of bouts. The first of which was a controversial draw, before Fury won the second contest, stopping Wilder in round seven.

And he retained the WBC title again in an all-time classic in Las Vegas against Wilder in October 2021. The former lineal heavyweight champ was dropped twice in the fourth round before he delivered a stunning 11th-round knockout win.
It took Fury's record to 31-0-1 with 22 KOs ahead of a domestic battle with Dillian Whyte scheduled for April 23.

Lawrence Okolie

Londoner Lawrence Okolie is the WBO cruiserweight world champion after he knocked out Krzysztof Glowacki at Wembley Arena in March 2021.

The unbeaten Okolie's power and awkward style were far too much for Poland's Glowacki, who lasted just six rounds.
The former Olympian became the first male member of Great Britain's 2016 Olympics squad to claim a professional world title.

Okolie then cruised to the first defence of his WBO title stopping Dilan Prasovic with a body shot.

The Montenegrin was stepping up massively in class and he only lasted three rounds. Okolie brutally disposed of the 27-year-old to secure his 14th knockout in 17 wins on the undercard to Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk.
The 6ft 5in Hackney fighter wants to emulate the likes of David Haye and Usyk, who both stepped up from cruiserweight to win world titles at heavyweight.
"Size-wise, I'm taller than Usyk, and I don't enjoy the dieting but I have to do that to make the [cruiserweight] weight. But I look forward to putting on more size and strength," said Okolie in September 2021.
"I believe I'm under-rated in terms of boxing IQ and it will be interesting to pit myself against the bigger, stronger guys and see how it goes. It will be interesting, but I'm looking forward to it."

Leigh Wood

Leigh Wood is the WBA world featherweight champion.
Wood, 33, from Nottingham, stopped Xu Can in the 12th and final round to take the WBA crown in August 2021.
Wood, who lost to James Dickens in February 2020, has admitted that his career "stalled" in previous years.
But the last three years have seen Wood become British, Commonwealth, European and now world champion. And after signing a multi-fight deal with Matchroom Boxing last summer he has set his sights on unifying the featherweight division.
Wood made a successful first defence of his belt with a dramatic 12th round KO of Conlan in Nottingham. It has already been labelled as the Fight of the Year for 2022.

Sunny Edwards

Sunny Edwards (17-0, 4KO's) claimed the IBF flyweight world title in May 2021 to become only the second pair of British brothers to become world champions after Liam and Callum Smith.
Edwards followed in the footsteps of his brother Charlie, who won the WBC world flyweight title in 2018.
The Londoner, 26, scored a unanimous points victory over Moruti Mthalane (39-3) at Bethnal Green's York Hall.
Edwards dominated the fight and over the 12 rounds the judges scored the contest 118-111, 120-108, 115-113 in favour of the Brit.
The defeat was the veteran South African's first since 2008 and it came as a huge shock.
"It might not be pretty or exciting all the time but I am hard to beat," said Edwards.
"I've been saying it the whole way through. It was a quiet build-up. We were friends before, I hope we're still friends now.
"He was good at closing the gap down. I felt I deserved to win. Their corner said I had won. I'm over the moon."
It was only his 16th professional bout, but he has proved he is a maturing fighter after stepping up to see off Mthalane.
There was a hint of what to come in his previous fight against Thomas Essomba in August in 2020
That was a unanimous points win, but that form was franked when his opponent subsequently earned a draw with the unbeaten Thomas Patrick Ward at super bantamweight.

He outpointed former title challenger Muhammad Waseem in his most recent outing.

Josh Taylor

Josh Taylor became the first Brit to become a four-belt undisputed champion in May 2021.

The Scottish southpaw became the best super-lightweight in the world after flooring Jose Ramirez twice. He took the bout on points but he joined Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk as the only fighters to hold all four world titles in a weight class at the same time.

The previously-unbeaten Ramirez started well but felt the power of Taylor in rounds five and seven as the American hit the canvas.

Ramirez poured it on the 12th but Taylor stood firm to win 114-112, 114-112, 114-112 on the cards.

Speaking to Sky Sports News in December, Taylor (19-0) said: "It's been a very proud year for me.

"I feel I'm now getting the recognition I deserve. I think I've been deserving of it for a long time but now I'm on the best platform.
"My fights are now going to be shown to the wider public here [in the UK] and over in America as well so my profile is only going to go through the roof now - especially if I keep getting the right results."

Taylor defended his world titles win a questionable decision victory over Jack Catterall in February 2022.

Savannah Marshall

Savannah Marshall will make the third defence of her WBO middleweight title against Femke Hermans on March 12.
But the undefeated Hartlepool middleweight has her eyes firmly on a match up against brash American Claressa Shields.
In fact Marshall was ringside last weekend, yawning, as Shields successfully defended her IBF, WBA and WBC middleweight titles against Slovenian Ema Kozin.

The pair had to be separated at ringside afterwards as Marshall pretended to fall asleep during the American's performance.

"If you perform like that against me, I'll absolutely wipe the floor with you," Marshall warned.
Shields shouted: "I'm not scared of you. You didn't come to America. I came here!"
Marshall, who won the WBO middleweight title in October 2020, carries serious power as her nine knockouts in her 11 fights suggests.

"Savannah Marshall can put a hole in you," her trainer Peter Fury claimed. "She can hit. She can hit properly, as well."

Chantelle Cameron

Chantelle Cameron is the current WBC and IBF light welterweight world champion.
She won by a landslide on the scorecards against Mary McGee in October 2021.
The judges scored the contest 100-90, 99-91 and 99-92 at the O2 Arena with the with Northampton fighter headlining the bill after Dillian Whyte vs Otto Wallin was cancelled.
As well as adding the IBF title, Cameron also claimed the prestigious Ring Magazine belt that was up for grabs.

Cameron became the second English female fighter to win a professional world title after defeating South American Adriana Dos Santos Araujo via unanimous decision in Milton Keynes in October 2020.

Cameron (15-0, 8 KO's) has her eye on unifying the light welterweight division against the American Kali Reis.
Cameron was ringside in November in New Hampshire for Reis' 10-round split-decision win over Jessica Camara.

"The pace was quite slow for what my pace normally is. I'm all wrong for Kali, whereas she's all right for me," Cameron told the BBC.

"She was being tagged a lot, hurt a lot as well. Jessica's not known for being a big puncher."

Josh Warrington

The Leeds man vacated his IBF world title in 2021 in order to fight bigger names, but was brought down to earth with a shock KO defeat to Mauricio Lara in the same year.
A rematch between the pair took place in September 2021 but ended in a split-draw following a nasty cut above Lara's eye in the second round.
However, Kiko Martinez delivered a surprise win of his own too over Kid Galahad to become world champion and demanded to face Warrington next.
He got his wish, only to taste the deck in round one before the referee halted proceedings in round seven to crown Warrington as IBF king. He could be set to face either Leigh Wood or Leo Santa Cruz next, once he has recovered from a broken jaw and hand.

Read more: Boxing schedule for 2022 - Every major fight night, date and venue

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