History
Since there's no upper weight limit on the heavyweight division, it was very poorly defined for many years.
One famous early heavyweight titlist, Bob Fitzsimmons, weighed only 167 pounds when he won the championship in 1897, and there were a couple of challengers for the title who weighed even less.
The division was set at "over 175 pounds" in 1920. However, that didn't prevent light heavyweight boxers from fighting for the heavyweight title; it simply meant that a fighter over 175 pounds could fight only as a heavyweight.
The lower limit of 190 pounds was established in 1979, when the cruiserweight division was founded. That was later raised to 195, and it became 200 pounds in 2003.
The lists below include generally recognized champions, as well as champions of the National Boxing Association/World Boxing Association (NBA/WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Organization (WBO) and International Boxing Federation (IBF).
Some other champions recognized by New York (NY), Great Britain (GBR), Europe and the European Boxing Union (EBU) are also included, if they seemed to be genuine claimants and /or later won recognition from an international body.
Only those bouts are included in which the championship changed hands or the championships of two or more governing bodies was unified.
