Heavyweight boxing championship records and statistics only universally recognized form of a world championship until July 2, 1921, when Jack Dempsey became the inaugural NBA Heavyweight Champion. The growing popularity of boxing led to a birth of various regional sanctioning organizations, with each recognizing their own champion. The major governing bodies were the National Boxing Association, formed in 1921, the New York State Athletic Commission, found after the Walker Law legalized prizefighting in New York in 1920, and the International Boxing Union, created in 1911 in Paris in attepmt create a unified international governing body for professional boxing. Both NBA and NYSAC made then-lineal champion Jack
Boxing at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Heavyweight Boxing at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Heavyweight The men's heavyweight boxing competition at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney was held from 21 September to 30 September at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. Félix Savón became the third boxer to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals, along with his countryman Teofilo Stevenson, and Hungary's Laszlo Papp. Shortly after the victory ceremony, he announced his retirement. Like all Olympic boxing events, the competition was a straight single-elimination tournament. This event consisted of 16 boxers who have qualified for the competition through various qualifying tournaments held in 1999 and 2000.