Cruiserweight (boxing)

Cruiserweight, also referred to as junior heavyweight, is a weight class in professional boxing between light heavyweight and heavyweight. Before the advent of the current cruiserweight class, "light heavyweight" and "cruiserweight" were sometimes used interchangeably in the United Kingdom.

The current weight limit for the division is 200 pounds (14 stone 4 pounds / 90.7 kg). When originally established, the weight limit was 190 pounds (86.2 kg). The division was established in order to accommodate smaller heavyweight boxers who could not compete with the growing size of boxers in that division. While many great heavyweight champions (such as Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis) weighed around 190 pounds in their career, during the 1970s it became fairly standard that heavyweight boxers weighed 220 pounds or 230 pounds. It was felt by many boxing authorities that asking men weighing between 176 pounds and 190 pounds to fight these larger men was unfair.

The WBC was the first boxing organization to recognize the cruiserweight division when it sanctioned a bout between Marvin Camel and Mate Parlov on December 8, 1979, for their version of the title. That fight was a draw, but in the rematch in March 1980 Camel won and became the first cruiserweight champion. In 1982 the World Boxing Association recognized Ossie Ocasio as their first cruiserweight champion when he defeated South African Robbie Williams (although at that time the WBA called the division "junior heavyweight"). The International Boxing Federation followed suit in 1983 when it matched former WBC champion Marvin Camel against Rick Sekorski for their inaugural title. Camel won and became the first IBF cruiserweight champion.

Several boxers moved up to Heavyweight after winning world titles at Cruiserweight. Evander Holyfield unified the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles to become undisputed champion, the first to do so, and then moved up to the heavyweight division in 1988.

Other notable champions in the division have been Bobby Czyz, Tomasz Adamek, Virgil Hill, Al Cole, Orlin Norris, James Toney and David Haye.

Johnny Nelson and Marco Huck jointly hold the record for most consecutive title defenses at this division, with both achieving 13 defenses of the WBO title.

Professional Champions

Current Champions

Sanctioning Body	Reign Began	Champion	Record	Defenses
WBA	May 21, 2016	Denis Lebedev	29-3 (22 KO)	5
WBC	May 29, 2016	Tony Bellew	28-2-1 (18 KO)	1
IBF	December 3, 2016	Murat Gassiev	24-0 (17 KO)	0
WBO	September 18, 2016	Oleksandr Usyk	10-0 (9 KO)	0

Interim Champions

Current Male Champions

Sanctioning Body	Reign Began	Champion	Record	Defenses
WBA	May 20, 2016	Yunier Dorticos	21-0 (20 KO)	0

Longest reigning cruiserweight champions

Below is a list of longest reigning cruiserweight champions in boxing measured by the individual's longest reign. Career total time as champion (for multiple time champions) does not apply.

	Name	Title Reign	Title Recognition	Successful Defenses
1.	Johnny Nelson	7 years, 5 months, 26 days	WBO	13
2.	Marco Huck	5 years, 11 months, 17 days	WBO	13
3.	Krzysztof Włodarczyk	4 years, 4 months, 12 days	WBC	6
4.	Denis Lebedev	4 years, 1 month, 3 days	WBA, IBF	3
4.	Guillermo Jones	4 years, 1 month, 3 days	WBA	2
6.	Juan Carlos Gómez	3 years, 11 months, 29 days	WBC	10
7.	Anaclet Wamba	3 years, 11 months, 17 days	WBC	8
8.	Yoan Pablo Hernández	3 years, 11 months, 2 weeks and 5 days	IBF	4
9.	Vassiliy Jirov	3 years, 10 months, 21 days	IBF	6
10.	Jean-Marc Mormeck	3 years, 10 months, 15 days	WBA, WBC	4
11.	Ossie Ocasio	2 years, 9 months, 18 days	WBA	3
12.	Evander Holyfield	2 years, 4 months, 22 days	WBA, IBF, WBC	5

     Active Title Reign

     Reign has ended

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Kickboxing

In kickboxing, a cruiserweight fighter generally weighs between 82 kg (181 lb) and 88 kg (195 lb). However, some governing bodies have slightly different classes. For example, the International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) Cruiserweight (professional and amateur) division is 186.1 lbs.–195 lbs. or 84.6 kg–88.6 kg.

References