Meet the Current Lightweight Champion in Boxing

Who is the current lightweight ruler?

The lightweight boxing division is littered or, perhaps more aptly, glittered with iconic names throughout history, such as Benny Leonard, Joe Gans, Roberto Duran, Tony Canzoneri, Pernell Whitaker and many, many more.

But who is the current champion at 135lbs in 2024? Unlike 100 years ago, there is now more than one world champion per weight class, with the introduction of additional governing bodies in boxing.

Read on to learn all about the current world lightweight champions in boxing.

The WBC Champion

The Stylist – Shakur Stevenson

From Newark, New Jersey, Shakur Stevenson is a three-weight world champion, currently the holder of the WBC lightweight title, widely regarded as the most prestigious belt of the ‘big four’.

Now 27, Shak was always destined to become a world champion after taking up boxing at the age of five and winning silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics, as well as collecting gold at Youth World Championships.

After turning pro in 2017, he didn’t have to wait long before claiming his first world title in October 2019, which was the WBO featherweight belt in just his 13th fight.

In 2021, he grabbed the super-featherweight version, then unified with the WBC in his next fight in 2022. In his next defence, he missed the weight limit so moved up to lightweight to win the WBC bauble in 2023, which he has defended already this year.

Stevenson is a slick, stylish boxer, with impeccable skills, but sometimes comes under criticism for not being entertaining enough and is likely the least powerful of all the present champions.

First WBC lightweight champion: Carlos Ortiz, Puerto Rico

The WBA Champion

The Face of Boxing – Gervonta Davis

Growing up in worst part of Baltimore, Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis became one of the most hardened, powerful and dangerous boxers of this century.

Abandoned by his parents, dragged through foster homes for years, the angry youth was fighting and beating up teenagers when he was just seven-years-old. Fortunately, that energy was channelled in the correct way through trainer Calvin Ford in the boxing gym where he won multiple national amateur championships.

He turned pro at 18, opting not to trial for the 2016 Olympics, and won his debut in just 90 seconds.

Fast-forward over a decade and ‘Tank’ is five-time world champion over three weights. He has won the WBA belt at super-featherweight, lightweight and super-lightweight.

First WBA lightweight champion: Carlos Ortiz, Puerto Rico

The IBF Champion

The Matrix – Vasiliy Lomachenko

Loma, The Matrix, The Alien, Hi-Tech… whatever you know him as, his greatest achievement was winning 397 from 398 amateur bouts – a record which will quite likely never be broken.

The double Olympic and World amateur champion holds the record (tied with Saensak Muangsurin) for winning a world title in the fewest professional fights – three. He is also the fastest double and triple world champion in history too.

The Ukrainian is also a triple-weight champion, like Stevenson and Davis, proving just how talented the lightweight division currently is. And he has won every single world title, albeit at different times – the WBC, WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO, The Ring.

First IBF lightweight champion: Charlie Brown, America

The WBO Champion

The Dark Horse – Denys Berinchyk

Denys Berinchyk is the newest of the four world champions, having won the WBO belt in May 2024. In doing so, he evened the balanced by making it two Ukrainian world lightweight champions alongside two Americans.

Now aged 36, Berinchyk is an Olympic and World Championships silver medalist. His pro debut was in the summer of 2015 and won a regional WBO belt at the end of 2017. He then won 11 consecutive WBO regional title fights, collecting the Oriental, International and European versions, to solidify his mandatory shot00, resulting in winning the full WBO world title in San Diego in his 19th fight.

He had to beat the experienced three-weight world champion Emanuel Navarrete in enemy territory to be crowned WBO king, which is why the underdog is known as the dark horse of the division. If Navarrete had won, then all four world lightweight champions would have been three-weight rulers.

First WBO lightweight champion: Mauricio Aceves

The Lineal Champion

The Dream – Devin Haney

Devin Haney isn’t a world champion at lightweight, but he holds the Lineal championship still, which is an intangible title bestowed to whoever beats the No.1 in the division. It’s essentially awarded to the man who beats the man.

He earned this status when he defeated Aussie George Kambosos Jr. in 2022.

Haney was the undisputed lightweight champion from 2022-2023, but because he moved up to super-lightweight, he vacated all four belts, which is the main reason why there’s four different champions in the division right now, which only happens half of the time, as right now just eight of the 17 weight divisions have all different titleholders.

First Lineal lightweight champion: Jack McAuliffe