Boxing
How the Current Featherweight Champion Rose to the Top
The featherweight division is talent-packed but who is the ruler of them all?
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How the featherweight ruler reached the top
The featherweight division has produced some of the best names in boxing history, such as ‘El Terrible’ Erik Morales; the flamboyant showman, Prince Naseem Hamed; the legendary Marco Antonio Barrera; Juan Manuel Marquez; Vasiliy Lomachenko, and in earlier times, Salvador Sanchez; Sandy Saddler; Henry Armstrong; Willie Pep; Abe Attell.
But who are the current kings of the 126lbs division? A century ago, this answer would have been just a single name, but in modern boxing, with the introduction of multiple governing bodies, the number of champions per weight class has grown.
Read on to learn about all the current featherweight world champions and how they came from the bottom to the top.
The WBC Champion
The Heartbreaker – Brandon Figueroa
Texan-Mexican Brandon Lee Figueroa, only 27, fell short in his first challenge for the world championship against Stephen Fulton down at super-bantamweight in 2021.
However, he smashed through Carlos Cuadras in six rounds in his first fight up at featherweight, then decisioned the ‘Magnifico’ Mark Magsayo in 2023 to win the WBC Interim featherweight title. A defence of that belt in May this year saw him elevated to full champion after Rey Vargas was announced as ‘Champion in Recess’ as he hasn’t won a fight in over two years.
It’s a tricky one to call Brandon a two-weight world champion, because he held the WBA Regular title at super-bantamweight and now he has been elevated from Interim to champion, so he has two world titles at home, but he needs a successful title defence to really solidify himself as the true titleholder.
First WBC featherweight champion: Sugar Ramos, Cuba
Brandon’s older brother, Omar Figueroa, was also a WBC world champion, in the higher lightweight class between 2013-2014.
The WBA Champion
The Mini Mike Tyson – Nick Ball
Better known as ‘The Wrecking Ball’, he could just as easily be named ‘Nasty Nick’. Trained by Paul Stevenson at the Everton Red Triangle in Liverpool, Nick Ball is not only a featherweight world champion, but one of the most exciting fighters in the world right now.
The 27-year-old Brit is all-action from the first bell to the last, never looking tired at any point despite throwing power punches from start to finish. It’s the reason his knockouts have come early, middle and late, because he has power to last and never stops looking to end the fight in every round.
Despite only experiencing 25 amateur bouts, the boxer-brawler claimed three national titles, but he had to cut his teeth on the small hall circuit as a fledgling pro, fighting in local leisure centres in Liverpool, before signing with promoter Frank Warren in 2020.
From there, he won the WBC Silver featherweight title by smashing through the experienced Isaac Lowe in six brutal, bloodied rounds at Wembley Stadium in 2022. Four title defences against former world champions then saw him in the ring with the WBC world champion Rey Vargas, where the challenger knocked the Mexican down multiple times yet was denied by a draw on the scorecards.
So, he defeated the WBA champion, Raymond Ford, in his next fight instead. The Merseyside mauler has always said his favourite belt is the green and gold WBC, so Brandon Figueroa had better watch out!
First WBA featherweight champion: Benny Bass, American
The IBF Champion
El Chinito – Angelo Leo
Angelo Leo won 25 amateur bouts, losing just once, winning 12 by KO. Like Nick Ball, he didn’t have many bouts in a vest, but he has been boxing since 11 and had all the experience and qualities needed to rise to the top of professional boxing.
Similarly to Figueroa, Leo is a two-weight world champion who also lost to Stephen Fulton in 2021, when defending his WBO super-bantamweight belt. Little did Fulton know it at the time, but he had defeated two future featherweight world champions in the same year.
A rebuild over four fights saw him land his shot at IBF titleholder Luis Alberto Lopez, who he knocked out sensationally in round 10 to lift the red and gold belt at featherweight.
First IBF featherweight champion: Oh Min-keun, South Korea
The WBO Champion
The Divine One – Rafael Espinoza
Rafael ‘El Divino’ Espinoza only amassed 11 amateur bouts, so any expectations as a professional have been exceeded already.
He turned pro in 2013 and fought most of his first two dozen bouts in Mexico, but then he came to America in December 2023 to upset Robeisy Ramirez for the WBO featherweight title in his 24th fight. The majority decision win to the challenger was very unexpected, as the Mexican had never fought for a title or been in a 12-round fight before.
The champion defended his belt in June 2024 with a clinical fourth-round knockout in Las Vegas, and is the only one of the four world champions to have a fight date in the diary – a rematch with Robeisy in December 2024.
First WBO featherweight champion: Maurizio Stecca, Italy
The Lineal Champion
Vacant
There hasn’t been a Lineal champion since Manny Pacquiao vacated in 2005 after moving up weights, meaning the next boxer to achieve this status will be the first in two decades to do so. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s wide open for any of the four aforementioned rulers to step up and take.
First Lineal featherweight champion: Billy Murphy, New Zealand
The Ring Top 10 Featherweights
The Ring was established in 1922 as a boxing and wrestling magazine and began publishing their ratings of professional boxers in 1924, so it’s now over 100 years old.
Check out the top 10 featherweights in The Ring’s world ratings below.
The Ring Top 10 Featherweights
| Rank | Boxer | Record | Nationality |
| 1 | Angelo Leo (IBF) | 25-1, 12 KOs | America |
| 2 | Nick Ball (WBA) | 21-0-1, 12 KOs | UK |
| 3 | Rey Vargas (WBC in Recess) | 36-1-1, 22 KOs | Mexico |
| 4 | Luis Alberto Lopez | 30-3, 17 KOs | Mexico |
| 5 | Rafael Espinoz (WBO) | 25-0, 21 KOs | Mexico |
| 6 | Brandon Figueroa (WBC) | 25-1-1, 19 KOs | America |
| 7 | Raymond Ford | 15-1-1, 8 KOs | America |
| 8 | Robeisy Ramirez | 14-2, 9 KOs | Cuba |
| 9 | Mirco Cuello | 14-0, 11 KOs | Argentina |
| 10 | Bruce Carrington | 13-0, 8 KOs | America |
The longest reigning featherweight world champion in history is Johnny Kilbane, who reigned from 1912-1923 for 11 years, 3 months, 24 days. From Cleveland, Ohio, the Irish-American became a boxer to help support his struggling family after his father went blind. He was paid $25 for his pro debut, but when he took the world title from Abe Atell, he returned to Cleveland a hero, welcomed by over 100,000 fans, and is regarded as one of the best boxers of all time.
Tim has over 27 years experience within the sports industry, working for football clubs Arsenal FC and Millwall FC, and boxing news websites British Boxing News, Boxing Social and Global Boxing News. His boxing articles have been published in Boxing News Magazine, national newspapers, plus many other major news outlets.