I've always looked at his record on boxrec and was impressed by some of the names but never watched him minus Lewis Wasn't he way ahead and got KO'D by either MCall or someone like thar
Oh don’t get me wrong.They were very good fighters, the likes of Naseem Hamid, Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank and even Akinwande and Herbie Hide but it was like the UK was the home base for the WBO, the amount of WBO title fights staged in the UK during the early to late 1990s. Without those numerous UK fights I think it would have taken a lot longer for the WBO to establish itself and gained acceptance from the boxing public.
I don’t rank him as great but he he had a very respectable career and record for a man who started as late as he did
Wlad didn’t win the WBO title until the 2000s and Lennox Lewis was still recognised as the true champion at that time even though he never held the WBO title. I don’t know the exact number but I’m fairly confident that the majority of WBO title fights during the 1990s which helped establish and raise the profile of the WBO was in the UK with a high number of them involving British fighters.
What about Oscar, everyone calls him a 6 weight champ but his first 2 belts were WBO's in the early 90's did he begin the top rank trend?
I think he had the whole package physically, I think from a mental standpoint he wasn't quite tough enough.
I remember watching the beating that he gave to Alexander Zolkin, going into the fight against Lewis, I thought he had a good shot at the upset, he had both height and reach on Lewis but wouldn't stop clinching.
The first time the WBO was really shown recognition was when Morrison beat Foreman, he was doing late night talk shows etc, and being introduced as the Heavyweight Champion of the World, when that title really belonged to Holyfield or Bowe.