Mexico is a proud boxing nation and a key part of the sport’s heritage. The country currently boasts seven Mexican world champions across all divisions of men’s boxing.
But it can be difficult for casual observers to understand the many championships that exist within boxing or keep track of its most decorated athletes. Let’s examine which titles are most important, how each of Mexico’s current champions reached the summit of the sport and what to expect from them in the year ahead.
Understanding boxing’s titles
Boxing has 17 weight classes, also known as divisions, and a range of sanctioning bodies. Four of these sanctioning bodies — the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF — are unanimously regarded as the ones that matter, and each has their own world champion in every division. The sanctioning bodies that boxers and fans deem relevant have changed throughout the history of professional boxing, hence the term ‘four-belt era’ when referring to the present-day incarnation of the sport.
In addition to these titles is the coveted Ring Magazine belt, which is available in each division. With rankings determined by the magazine’s editorial board, and strict criteria determining those eligible to compete for the title, Ring Magazine champions have enjoyed enhanced acclaim since the award’s introduction in 1922. In other words, although we’re living in the four-belt era, there are actually five belts that count.
A boxer who possesses just one of these titles is a world champion. A special few Mexican boxers hold several of them.
Ángel Ayala
The youngest of Mexico’s world champions, Texcoco-born Ayala competes in the 112-pound flyweight division. When a string of victories and two regional titles earned him a shot at the IBF Flyweight Championship last August, he dutifully took the opportunity, knocking out the previously-undefeated Dave Apolinario to seize the title.
At just 24 years old, Ayala has become a world champion without ever boxing outside of Mexico. In 2025, he’ll hope to impress on the world stage.
Rafael Espinoza
“I broke my ankle,” Espinoza told his trainer, Manny Robles, after being knocked down and landing awkwardly in the fifth round of his first world title fight, in December 2023.
“Do you want us to stop it?” asked Robles.
“No,” Espinoza replied. “I don’t want to stop. I’m going to be champion of the world.”
So Rafael Espinoza — already an underdog against his opponent, the well-schooled Cuban champion Robeisy Ramírez — returned to the center of the ring. He completed the final seven rounds with such heart and proficiency that, by way of the judges’ scorecards, he fulfilled his own inconceivable prophecy.
It’s rare for an Espinoza fight to be left to the judges; prior to that night, all but three of his 23 professional victories had come via knockout. But it took going the distance to claim the WBO crown.
Since then, the knockout run has resumed. Espinoza has made two successful defenses of his title, including a rematch with Ramírez, in which he ruthlessly obliged his opponent to quit. The logical next step is another title, whether at featherweight or in a higher weight class. Whichever Espinoza decides, it should make for compulsive viewing.
Rey Vargas
At 34 years old, Vargas is a veteran of the lower weight classes. After winning his first world title in 2017, he successfully defended his status as WBC Super Bantamweight Champion five times before claiming a second WBC belt at featherweight in 2022.
But subsequent years have been fraught with professional adversity. In February 2023, Vargas attempted to become a three-division champion, moving up again to face the undefeated O’Shaquie Foster and enduring the fist loss of his career. His next bout, back at featherweight, saw him narrowly retain his title with a draw against Britain’s Nick Ball, in a fight that most observers besides the adjudicators believe he lost. He has not fought again since.
Nobody can outrun time, least of all Vargas, who is now sidelined after breaking his leg in a training accident. The prolonged layoff, for a fighter more than two years removed from his last win, has prompted the WBC to make him Champion-in-Recess and allow other combatants to vie for divisional supremacy.
Whoever holds the belt will be mandated to face Vargas when he returns. But with a long road back to recovery and nothing left to prove, it remains to be seen if the State of México native wants — or is capable of — one last shot at glory.
Emanuel Navarrete
His remarkably high punch output, relentless pressure, unconventional shot selection and defensive vulnerabilities have earned Emanuel Navarrete a reputation as a purveyor of compelling fights. He’s also a three-division world champion, having picked up titles at junior featherweight and featherweight before acquiring the WBO’s junior lightweight prize.
2024 was a mixed year for the champion, who hails from the state of México; Navarrete also set out to conquer another weight class and failed. He did, however, find redemption in an impressive comeback win. Upon returning to junior lightweight, he successfully defended his title against talented fellow Mexican Óscar Valdez. It was an enthralling second meeting between the pair, with Navarrete adding a sixth-round knockout to his 2023 decision victory.
So what’s next? While Navarrete has expressed a desire to challenge at lightweight again, his promoters may have other ideas; Top Rank, who also represent Rafael Espinoza, have floated a possible meeting between the Mexican champions in 2025. If it materializes, it will be a fight to make boxing fans salivate.
José Valenzuela
At just three years old, José Valenzuela was the victim of a hit-and-run that almost killed him. “It took me nearly a year to learn how to walk again,” he subsequently recalled in an interview with Premier Boxing Champions. “It’s a miracle that I survived.”
22 years later, the Los Mochis native became champion of the world.
Predictably, in a sport as harsh as boxing, Valenzuela would benefit immensely from his innate powers of recovery. After suffering two shock losses in 2022 and 2023, he demanded an immediate rematch with the opponent who’d inflicted his second defeat, brutally knocking him out in the return bout to reaffirm his status as a contender.
The reward was a title shot against countryman Isaac Cruz. Like several of the champions on this list, Valenzuela entered the ring for the biggest fight of his life as the underdog, then proved the whole world wrong. He outclassed Cruz before an enraptured crowd at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium, on his way to claiming the WBA belt.
Despite the surprise nature of his victory, Valenzuela’s team believes this is more than a flash in the pan. He makes his first defense against former U.S. Olympian Gary Antuanne Russel at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in March.
Gilberto Ramírez
One of boxing’s most famous southpaws, the Mazatlán-born “Zurdo” Ramírez is the first Mexican to win world titles in the super middleweight and cruiserweight divisions. But he took the scenic route to get there. Despite an impressive 47 professional victories, the world title eluded Zurdo at light heavyweight, causing him to go eight years between obtaining the WBO Super Middleweight Championship and achieving glory in another division.
Ultimately, it took an ascension to cruiserweight; since joining boxing’s 200-pounders, he’s looked better than ever, snatching the WBA belt from experienced champion Arsen Goulamirian before adding the formidable Chris Billam-Smith’s WBO title in November.
A further unification fight with IBF champion Jai Opetaia is high on most boxing fans’ wish lists for 2025, and both fighters have conveyed an eagerness to make it happen.
Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez
The “Face of Boxing” and a four-weight world champion, Canelo requires little introduction.
He started boxing professionally aged just 15, fighting fully-grown men as he accumulated the first of his 62 victories, before claiming world titles at junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight, and light heavyweight.
For many fans, Canelo’s long and storied career will be remembered most for 11 miraculous months: four fights, between December 2020 and November 2021, over which he won the WBA, WBC, Ring Magazine, WBO and IBF super middleweight titles and became the first undisputed super middleweight champion of the four-belt era.
At his peak, he was the pound-for-pound king of boxing. Even now, as he nears the end of his career, he remains the sport’s biggest pay-per-view star.
After fighting professionally for almost 20 years and spending much of that time at boxing’s pinnacle, what’s left for Canelo to achieve? Nothing. Yet a fight with fellow pound-for-pound great — and undisputed champion in both the junior welterweight and welterweight divisions — Terence Crawford looks set for 2025.
On paper, it’s a big undertaking for the smaller, albeit supremely talented, Crawford. But such is the extent of Canelo’s appeal: legacy-defining victory if you win, inconceivable riches even if you don’t. Should the fight be made, it will undoubtedly be the biggest event of the year’s boxing calendar. But with Canelo, it often is.
Ajay Smith is a freelance journalist and ghostwriter from Manchester, England, now based in Mexico City. His areas of specialization include boxing, soccer, political history, and current affairs. Samples of his work can be found at ajaysmith.com/portfolio.
