List of Puerto Rican boxing world champions

[1] Puerto Rico ranks 5th worldwide between countries with most boxing world champions in history (only behind USA, Mexico, UK and Japan).

Also, in 2023, Serrano was the first Puerto Rican to be Undisputed world champion in a single division (featherweight), having won the four belts on each of the major boxing organizations (WBO,WBC,IBF and later WBA).

Following the culmination of the Puerto Rican Campaign and Spanish–American War, American soldiers who were stationed in the main island practiced the sport.

Most of these events were celebrated without restriction due to military jurisdictional limits, although prohibitions were put in place for the civilian population.

By 1924, several young men were being taught to box by Gregario Rosa, a boxer who had won the featherweight championship of the Atlantic Fleet while serving in the Navy.

In one case they discovered a group of police officers, including a colonel, two members of the governor's cabinet, numerous legislators and a judge at an event.

Legislator Lorenzo Coballes Gandía redacted a proposal to legalize boxing, which was signed by governor Horace Mann Towner in May 1927.

Héctor García, Dommys Delgado Berty, Francisco Varcárcel and José Peñagaricano have served as presidents of the Puerto Rico Boxing Commission.

[13] During the following decades, the Puerto Rico Boxing Commission became the first governing body to have a female president when Delgado Berty served from 1986 to 1988.

[15] In 2007, David Bernier, then Secretary of Recreation and Sports, approved a new rule in the boxing organization's regulation that prohibited the signing of any pugilist younger than 18 years old as a professional.

This was fueled by the championships won by Ada Veléz and Amanda Serrano, as well as Kiria Tapia becoming the first Pan American champion in her division.