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Joshua, Klitschko, Parker: Boxing's youngest heavyweight champions of the 21st century
Joseph Parker is pushing for a world title by all means necessary - leading the Kiwi to an enticing encounter with Brit Fabio Wardley on Saturday, October 25, live on DAZN PPV.
Both men possess titles of the same value, Parker the WBO interim world champion, while Wardley holds the WBA version of the strap.
The hope is that by taking out another contender, the victor will get their opportunity against Oleksandr Usyk, the current king of the heavyweight division.
Now 33, Parker has been a world champion before - back when he was a fresh-faced 24-year-old. Here are the tales of the five youngest heavyweight world champions of the 21st century.
Wladimir Klitschko
Using the popular definition of a century, Wladimir Klitschko became a world champion for the first time right at the start of the 2000s.
By defeating Chris Byrd in October 2000, he claimed the WBO title - a belt his brother Vitali had held entering the new millennium. Already a gold medal winner at the Olympic Games in 1996, Klitschko was just 24 when he became a world champion, five months younger than Joseph Parker when he defeated Andy Ruiz 16 years later.
In just under four years as a professional Klitschko racked up 35 fights ahead of his first world title fight, winning 34 contests - all but one by stoppage.
Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
Floated in as a replacement for Donovan Ruddock on seven days’ notice, Byrd had stopped Vitali Klitschko in April the same year.
Although the Ukrainian was far ahead on the scorecards, Byrd’s ability to make Vitali miss led to the champion retiring in his corner with a shoulder injury ahead of the 10th round.
The younger and more nimble Klitschko brother proved a different story, with Byrd knocked down twice as Wladimir romped to a wide unanimous decision victory. To Byrd’s credit, he became just the second man to go the distance with Klitschko.
Just at the beginning of their shared dominance of the heavyweight division, the Klitschko brothers would go on to share all four belts between themselves for the best part of the next decade. That being said, Wladimir would drop his WBO belt when he was defeated by South African Corrie Sanders in 2003, and only returned to world champion status when he defeated Byrd in a 2006 rematch, taking the American’s IBF strap.
Joseph Parker
Joseph Parker hopes to soon become a world champion again, almost a decade on from his first stint as a title holder at heavyweight.
He defeated then-undefeated heavyweight Andy Ruiz for the vacant WBO strap in his homeland of New Zealand, edging a narrow fight by majority decision in 2016.
He remains highly viewed by the WBO, as he now serves as their interim world champion. The mandatory contender for Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed crown, Parker has had to wait for his shot, leading to the risky fight with Wardley.
Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing
Not only the second-youngest man on our list, Parker also took the second-quickest route to a world title in terms of bouts. The Kiwi won his world title in his 22nd bout, having won all of his contests up until that point.
Routine defences against Razvan Cojanu and Hughie Fury paved the way for a unification clash with Anthony Joshua in 2018, a bout which ended Parker’s reign as world champion.
Brit Joshua took just 16 professional fights to claim his first title - and by AJ’s 21st, he had collected Parker’s WBO strap to add to the IBF and WBA belts he had earned.
Anthony Joshua
As mentioned above, Joshua took the professional ranks by storm after switching from amateur boxing in 2013. Already identified as a phenom thanks to taking gold at his home Olympics in 2012, there was little doubt that Joshua was a future world champion.
Charles Martin has the unfortunate anecdote of being the second-shortest reigning world champion in heavyweight history, Joshua ending the American’s reign at the 85-day mark in 2016.
Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing
The fact that it took just 16 fights for ‘AJ’ to claim the IBF version of the championship was no surprise, and it looked like Joshua would go on to dominate for years to come when he beat an ageing Wladimir Klitschko for the WBA belt in 2017. He cruised past Parker to bring his total of major world titles up to three, while also possessing the minor IBO belt.
Seemingly on track to become the first undisputed champion of the heavyweight division in the four-belt era, Joshua was shocked by Andy Ruiz - the very man Parker had beaten to become a world champion.
A rematch was swiftly arranged and the belts restored to Joshua; but harder times were to follow. After losing his first meeting with Oleksandr Usyk and losing all his titles once more, Joshua could not repeat the comeback he had managed over Ruiz.
An all-British bout against the next youngest heavyweight champion of the 21st century would be Joshua’s route back to a world title.
- Read next | Joshua, Fury, Itauma: Ranking Britain's top 10 heavyweights after Allen's heartbreaking loss
Daniel Dubois
Only a few months older than Joshua was at the time of his first coronation, Daniel Dubois knocked out his compatriot in September 2024 in what felt like a changing of the guard.
‘Dynamite’ Dubois is the only inclusion on this list to initially win his world belt outside of the ring, with his IBF interim championship upgraded to full title status after Oleksandr Usyk vacated to pursue a rematch with Tyson Fury in the summer of 2024.
Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Dubois will point out that he was a ‘world champion’ of some description in June 2022 aged 24 when he defeated Trevor Bryan for the WBA ‘regular’ title. However, the ‘regular’ version of the WBA’s championship is not recognised by the other sanctioning bodies as being equal to their own world titles, a view reflected by fight fans and the media.
Aged 27 when he defeated Joshua in the first defence of his title, Dubois had been set to face Joseph Parker in February 2025, before he sustained an injury. After recovering, he pursued a rematch with Usyk for undisputed status - only to be knocked out for a second time by the Ukrainian.
Still only 28, Dubois will be confident he can return back to world title contention in the coming years.
Tyson Fury
Tyson Fury was another British star always backed to fare well in the heavyweight division, and he lived up to that promise when he defeated Wladimir Klitschko as a 27-year-old in 2015.
Like Joshua, Fury has been well positioned to become undisputed champion at heavyweight on a few occasions. Victory over Klitschko would earn Fury three of the four belts required to claim the status as the conqueror of boxing’s most glamorous decision, and there was plenty of noise about a unification bout with Deontay Wilder midway through the 2010s.
PA
However, out-of-the-ring escapades cost Fury his belts, meaning by the time he eventually met Wilder in Las Vegas, only the American held a world title.
Eventually taking and keeping the WBC title from the ‘Bronze Bomber’ after a trilogy of fights, Fury managed to set up an undisputed bout with Oleksandr Usyk in 2024. Usyk, of course, had collected the three belts from Joshua, all of which had previously been in possession of Fury.
Beaten for the first time as a professional by the Ukrainian, Fury’s attempt to become a three-time world champion ended in the same result - a loss after 12 rounds to Usyk. Declaring retirement and taking 2025 off, Fury is rumoured to return in 2026 - a year in which he turns 38.
- Read next | Fury, Froch: Fighters who used York Hall as springboard to superstardom ahead of Conway-Liddard
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