Wardley follows in the footsteps of Daniel Dubois, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, David Haye, Lennox Lewis, Herbie Hide, Henry Akinwande, Frank Bruno, Michael Bentt and Robert Fitzsimmons as Britons to have become world heavyweight champions in the sport’s history.
Of the 11, Wardley becomes the sixth to do this with the WBO belt, with both Fury and Joshua among those to have been recent WBO heavyweight champions.
No British boxer has won all four major belts at the same time, but three of them have held three of boxing’s four major heavyweight belts simultaneously.
Joshua held the WBO, IBF and WBO belts at the same time during two spells as champion, while Fury also had all three during his first championship run.
During Lewis’ second reign as champion between 1997 and 2001, he held the WBA, WBC and IBF titles together.
Lewis’ second title reign of four years was the longest of any British world heavyweight champion, successfully defending the belts nine times.
Four champions, Fury, Hide, Bentt and Fitzsimmons all lost belts without successfully defending them.
