World Boxing Federation
Professional boxing organization
The World Boxing Federation (WBF) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It was created in 1988.
01Information
The World Boxing Federation was originally established in 1988 by Larry Carrier, who was part owner of Bristol Motor Speedway in northeastern Tennessee. It was an expanded version of the American Pro Boxing Association. The original concept for the WBF was written on the back of a napkin as an alternative for boxing as Carrier felt there was a lack of vision in boxing. The WBF wanted to give overlooked fighters a chance and wanted to be a more affordable sanctioning body for aspiring promoters by only charging a $5,000 sanctioning fee. The WBF also sought to promote itself in an honest manner and help the sport. The promotion signed their first title fight in November 1990, when they organized a cruiserweight bout between Rickey Patkey and Joe Louis for December 7, 1990.
The WBF's titles were not initially recognized by the British Boxing Board of Control and had to wait until 1995 to achieve recognition. The company had 17 field offices outside of the US by 1995 and the company moved its headquarters to Las Vegas prior to 1998. Larry Carrier sold the WBF to Ron Scalf in June 1998. The organization closed in 2004 after losing a lawsuit and was revived in 2009. In 2022, the promotion announced that they would no longer sanction title fights with boxers with negative records in an effort to raise standards.
The organization has sanctioned matches on 6 of the 7 continents. The organization has three levels of champions including World champions, Intercontinental champions and International champions. The organization also sanctions women's boxing matches. The promotion also monitors its judges closely and feels integrity is its greatest asset.
The promotion also had their own magazine called, "Inside Boxing with the WBF".
02Current WBF World Champions
As of 18 September 2026 (men):
| Weight class: | Champion: | Reign began: |
|---|---|---|
| Minimumweight | vacant | |
| Light flyweight | vacant | |
| Flyweight | vacant | |
| Super flyweight | vacant | |
| Bantamweight | vacant | |
| Super bantamweight | vacant | |
| Featherweight | vacant | |
| Super featherweight | vacant | |
| Lightweight | vacant | |
| Super lightweight | vacant | |
| Welterweight | vacant | |
| Super welterweight | Freddy Kiwitt (LBR) | November 24, 2023 |
| Middleweight | Alan Graves (GIB) | May 3, 2025 |
| Super middleweight | Alaa Al Mahmoud (SYR) | May 1, 2025 |
| Light heavyweight | vacant | |
| Cruiserweight | Łukasz Pławecki (POL) | May 23, 2026 |
| Bridgerweight | Artur Mann (GER) | February 7, 2026 |
| Heavyweight | Willy Kyakonye (UGA) | May 17, 2025 |
03Notable Past WBF champions
- Evander Holyfield, former Heavyweight champion
- Francois Botha, former Heavyweight champion
- Jimmy Thunder, former Heavyweight champion
- Johnny Nelson, former Heavyweight champion
- Adílson Rodrigues, former Heavyweight champion
- Bert Cooper, former Heavyweight champion
- Mike Bernardo, former Heavyweight champion
- Joe Bugner, former Heavyweight champion
- Roy Jones Jr., former Light Heavyweight champion
- Robin Reid, former Super Middleweight champion
- Carl Daniels, former Middlweight champion
- Juan Lazcano, former Lightweight champion
- Dimitry Salita, former Super Light champion
- Samson Dutch Boy Gym, former Junior Bantamweight champion
- Jesús Chong, former Junior Flyweight champion
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “World Boxing Federation”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- World Boxing Federation Logo.jpg by Unknown author, Fair use
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