Open Boxing

WBO light heavyweight world title

Covers world title bouts since 1988. Current champion: Dmitry Bivol, since 22nd Feb 2025.

World title bouts
83
Champions
14
Longest reign (Dariusz Michalczewski, 1994–2003)
9 years, 1 month
Most successful defences in one reign (Dariusz Michalczewski, 1994–2003)
23

Current champion

Dmitry BivolSince 22nd Feb 2025 · 1 year, 8 months · 0 successful defences

Upcoming world title bouts

  1. Dmitry Bivol v Callum Smith

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF, WBO and The Ring

Reigns and world title bouts

Feb 2022 – Feb 2027

WBO
JrArtur BeterbievDmitry Bivol
AprJulOct2023AprJulOct2024AprJulOct2025AprJulOct2026AprJulOct2027
1990200020102020

World title boutScheduled

Reigns by length

  1. 1Dariusz MichalczewskiWBO1994–20039 years, 1 month · 23 successful defences
  2. 2Zsolt ErdeiWBO2004–20095 years, 9 months · 11 successful defences
  3. 3Leeonzer BarberWBO1991–19943 years, 4 months · 4 successful defences
  4. 4Sergey KovalevWBO2013–20163 years, 3 months · 8 successful defences
  5. 5Artur BeterbievWBO2022–20252 years, 8 months · 3 successful defences
  6. 6Michael MoorerWBO1988–19912 years, 5 months · 9 successful defences
  7. 7Nathan CleverlyWBO2011–20132 years, 2 months · 5 successful defences
  8. 8Dmitry BivolWBO2025–present1 year, 8 months · 0 successful defences
  9. 9Juergen BraehmerWBO2009–20111 year, 6 months · 2 successful defences
  10. 10Joe Smith JrWBO2021–20221 year, 2 months · 1 successful defence
  11. 11Andre WardWBO2016–201710 months · 1 successful defence
  12. 12Sergey KovalevWBO2019–20199 months · 1 successful defence
  13. 13Sergey KovalevWBO2017–20188 months · 1 successful defence
  14. 14Eleider AlvarezWBO2018–20195 months · 0 successful defences
  15. 15Julio Cesar GonzalezWBO2003–20042 months · 0 successful defences
  16. 16Canelo AlvarezWBO2019–20191 month · 0 successful defences

Timeline of world title events

  1. 1988

  2. Michael Moorer beats Ramzi Hassan via knockout 5/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  3. 1989

  4. Michael Moorer beats Victor Claudio via knockout 2/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  5. Michael Moorer beats Frankie Swindell via knockout 6/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  6. Michael Moorer beats Freddie Delgado via knockout 1/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  7. Michael Moorer beats Leslie Stewart via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  8. Michael Moorer beats Jeff Thompson via knockout 1/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  9. Michael Moorer beats Mike Sedillo via knockout 6/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  1. 1990

  2. Michael Moorer beats Marcellus Allen via corner retirement 9/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  3. Michael Moorer beats Mario Melo via knockout 1/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  4. Michael Moorer beats Danny Stonewalker via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  5. 1991

  6. Leeonzer Barber beats Tom Collins via corner retirement 5/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  7. 1992

  8. Leeonzer Barber beats Anthony Hembrick via split decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  9. 1993

  10. Leeonzer Barber beats Mike Sedillo via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  11. Leeonzer Barber beats Andrea Magi via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  12. 1994

  13. Leeonzer Barber beats Nicky Piper via knockout 9/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  14. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Leeonzer Barber via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  15. 1995

  16. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Roberto Dominguez via knockout 2/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  17. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Paul Carlo via knockout 4/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  18. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Everardo Armenta Jr via knockout 5/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  19. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Philippe Michel via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  20. 1996

  21. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Asluddin Umarov via knockout 5/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  22. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Christophe Girard via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  23. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Graciano Rocchigiani via disqualification 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  24. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Christophe Girard via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  25. 1997

  26. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Virgil Hill via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA, IBF and WBO

  27. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Nicky Piper via corner retirement 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  28. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Daren Zenner via corner retirement 6/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  29. 1998

  30. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Andrea Magi via knockout 4/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  31. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Mark Prince via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  32. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Drake Thadzi via knockout 9/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  33. 1999

  34. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Muslim Biyarslanov via knockout 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  35. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Montell Griffin via knockout 4/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  1. 2000

  2. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Graciano Rocchigiani via corner retirement 9/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  3. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Ka Dy King via knockout 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  4. 2001

  5. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Alejandro Lakatos via knockout 9/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  6. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Richard Hall via knockout 11/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  7. 2002

  8. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Joey DeGrandis via knockout 2/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  9. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Richard Hall via knockout 10/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  10. 2003

  11. Dariusz Michalczewski beats Derrick Harmon via knockout 9/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  12. Julio Cesar Gonzalez beats Dariusz Michalczewski via split decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  13. 2004

  14. Zsolt Erdei beats Julio Cesar Gonzalez via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  15. Zsolt Erdei beats Hugo Garay via majority decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  16. Zsolt Erdei beats Alejandro Lakatos via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  17. 2005

  18. Zsolt Erdei beats Hugo Garay via split decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  19. Zsolt Erdei beats Mehdi Sahnoune via knockout 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  20. 2006

  21. Zsolt Erdei beats Paul Murdoch via knockout 10/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  22. Zsolt Erdei beats Thomas Ulrich via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  23. 2007

  24. Zsolt Erdei beats Danny Santiago via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  25. Zsolt Erdei beats George Blades via knockout 11/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  26. Zsolt Erdei beats Tito Mendoza via split decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  27. 2008

  28. Zsolt Erdei beats DeAndrey Abron via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  29. 2009

  30. Zsolt Erdei beats Yuriy Barashian via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  31. Zsolt Erdei’s reign as the WBO light heavyweight world champion ends

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

    Juergen Braehmer becomes the WBO light heavyweight world champion

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  32. Juergen Braehmer beats Dmitry Sukhotskiy via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  1. 2010

  2. Juergen Braehmer beats Mariano Nicolas Plotinsky via knockout 5/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  3. 2011

  4. Juergen Braehmer’s reign as the WBO light heavyweight world champion ends

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

    Nathan Cleverly becomes the WBO light heavyweight world champion

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  5. Nathan Cleverly beats Aleksy Kuziemski via knockout 4/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  6. Nathan Cleverly beats Tony Bellew via majority decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  7. 2012

  8. Nathan Cleverly beats Tommy Karpency via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  9. Nathan Cleverly beats Shawn Hawk via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  10. 2013

  11. Nathan Cleverly beats Robin Krasniqi via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  12. Sergey Kovalev beats Nathan Cleverly via knockout 4/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  13. Sergey Kovalev beats Ismayl Sillah via knockout 2/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  14. 2014

  15. Sergey Kovalev beats Cedric Agnew via knockout 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  16. Sergey Kovalev beats Blake Caparello via knockout 2/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  17. Sergey Kovalev beats Bernard Hopkins via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF and WBO

  18. 2015

  19. Sergey Kovalev beats Jean Pascal via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF and WBO

  20. Sergey Kovalev beats Nadjib Mohammedi via knockout 3/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF and WBO

  21. 2016

  22. Sergey Kovalev beats Jean Pascal via corner retirement 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF and WBO

  23. Sergey Kovalev beats Isaac Chilemba via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF and WBO

  24. Andre Ward beats Sergey Kovalev via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF and WBONew WBO champion

  25. 2017

  26. Andre Ward beats Sergey Kovalev via knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF, WBO and The Ring

  27. Andre Ward’s reign as the WBO light heavyweight world champion ends

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  28. Sergey Kovalev beats Vyacheslav Shabranskyy via knockout 2/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  29. 2018

  30. Sergey Kovalev beats Igor Mikhalkin via knockout 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  31. Eleider Alvarez beats Sergey Kovalev via knockout 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  32. 2019

  33. Sergey Kovalev beats Eleider Alvarez via unanimous decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  34. Sergey Kovalev beats Anthony Yarde via knockout 11/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  35. Canelo Alvarez beats Sergey Kovalev via knockout 11/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  36. Canelo Alvarez’s reign as the WBO light heavyweight world champion ends

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  1. 2021

  2. Joe Smith Jr beats Maxim Vlasov via majority decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBONew champion

  3. 2022

  4. Joe Smith Jr beats Steve Geffrard via knockout 9/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBO

  5. Artur Beterbiev beats Joe Smith Jr via technical knockout 2/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBC, IBF and WBONew WBO champion

  6. 2023

  7. Artur Beterbiev beats Anthony Yarde via technical knockout 8/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBC, IBF and WBO

  8. 2024

  9. Artur Beterbiev beats Callum Smith via technical knockout 7/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBC, IBF and WBO

  10. Artur Beterbiev beats Dmitry Bivol via majority decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, WBC, IBF, WBO and The Ring

  11. 2025

  12. Dmitry Bivol beats Artur Beterbiev via majority decision 12/12

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, WBC, IBF, WBO and The RingNew WBO champion

  13. 2026

  14. Dmitry Bivol v Callum Smith

    Light Heavyweight · WBA Super, IBF, WBO and The RingScheduled

    Source: Bivol to defend light-heavyweight titles against Britain's Smith in Russia(opens in a new tab), Dawn, Reuters,