The sport of boxing is actually an ancient sport that can be traced all the way back to the early Greeks. But in these modern days and times, when you hear about the next big boxing match, you probably first think about your favorite heavyweight boxer and their upcoming competition, rather than the Greeks of old.

Numerous movies, books and plays find their interesting settings revolving around a key character brought to life in the person of a heavyweight boxer. One who is out to beat the odds and prove himself to others, and often to himself as well, in the unfolding of the story.

Often, the events that revolve around an aspiring heavyweight boxer can develop into a good piece of storytelling. There is also a lot of real-life interest that boxing fans are eager to learn about regarding their favorite professional boxers who enter the rings.

Heavyweight is a designation for a weight class in both professional and amateur levels of boxing. Of the 17 different weight classes in this sport, it is the class for the largest of boxers and is probably the most widely known category of classes.

Almost all of the biggest, most promoted, most exciting and highest-money grossing boxing matches have been those that pit one undefeated heavyweight boxer against another. These athletes usually have a similar, clean statistical record of wins. There is no doubt that professional boxing, especially at the heavyweight level is a huge and profitable industry.

A fighter who weighs-in at over 200 pounds, or 90.72 kilograms is considered to be a heavyweight boxer. This standing is consistent with all of the main professional organizations of this sport worldwide, including: the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Association (WBA), the World Boxing Council (WBC), the International Boxing Organization (IBO)78 and the World Boxing Organization (WBO).

For a long time in the sport history, this boxing division had no maximum limit for weight (unlike the other 16 boxing weight classes) and so this class has been rather vaguely defined historically, allowing for some under the 200 pound threshold to compete as heavyweights during the 19th century.

However, in 1920, the classification was more formally defined and a minimum weight was set at 175 pounds in order for a fighter to be considered a heavyweight boxer. This eventually evolved into the light heavyweight division. Today, any fighter who is over 200 pounds cannot contend in any class other than heavyweight.

It is essentially impossible to identify who the first heavyweight boxer champion was because of the fact that the sport history stretches back as far as recorded history goes. It is certain that there must have been large fighters unfairly matched against lighter athletes, since the standards of classifications have only been in use within the last 150 years or so.

It is easier to identify champions of recent times. In fact, nowadays with the excess of media coverage, there is an abundant amount of news on this sport. Information that covers all of the current contenders and their matches in great detail, through boxing magazines, the internet and also on the cable sports channels. And, there is no doubt that real fans of it simply cannot get enough of the behind-the-scenes stories concerning the contending boxing greats, that are in contention with one another to be the next great heavyweight boxer.

It is an interesting development to note that in recent years, the title of heavyweight boxer champion has actually become fractured among the different sanctioning organizations of this professional sport.

Because of this factor, it has become tough to define which heavyweight boxer is truly the champion. So, the result has been an additional title of "Undisputed Champion" which a fighter can earn by defeating the other champions from the other boxing organizations.

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