I've been watching boxing since 1986. when I was a kid the WBO belt was seen as a joke. That was the belt that Herbie Hide and Tommy Morrison held. Fast forward to 2020 and everyone's all like 'omg you need the WBO to be unidisputed' when and why exactly did we start recognizing this junk trinket? the only reason I can think of was because this was Wlads favorite belt, so in order to better legitimize him as an ATG we first must legitimize the belt.... am I wrong here? WBO..... please
Basically as the other three became more of a joke themselves (diamond champs, super champs, corrupt rankings, joke mandatory challengers, etc), there seemed no reason to say the WBO was any less of a joke.
Didn’t Arum and Warren start pushing their stable to fight for WBO belts and that’s why it gradually became recognised as a legit belt over time.
Probably the mid-late 90's when Barrera, Naseem Hamed and Calzaghe held the WBO belt while being recognised as the best in their division although even then it was still seen as the lesser of the 4 championships in the US, Ring Magazine's rankings back then didn't acknowledge the WBO.
It began when Naseem Hamed won the WBO title and began knocking off the other champs, too. At the time, the three main sanctioning bodies colluded and all three had a rule that you could hold one, two or all three of their belts, but you couldn't hold one of their belts AND a WBO belt. The orgs did that because they didn't want the "new" org to gain traction. When Hamed won the WBO belt and engaged in a unificaiton and won, he would keep the WBO belt and dump the other. His loyalty was with the WBO. The money was good, so the other champs were willing to fight Hamed. But it got to the point where the WBA stripped Wilfredo Vazquez just before fighting Hamed because they didn't want Hamed to win their belt and trash it, like he had when he beat Tom Johnson for the IBF strap and dumped it (and did again after beating Cesar Soto for the WBC belt). Hamed was the best and had essentially beaten all the other champs, and he was the WBO champ. So ...
Doesn't matters. Matters if said pro boxing org A, B or C recognize the boxer as world champion under their org. How you evalue boxing orgs is your persoal opinion. If WBC cruiser tittle might be possibly defended vs Durodola. To do this vs Briedis most likely didn't looked enough lucrative variant.
WBO is the best belt right now. They seem to have the least shenanigans. Then WBA, followed by the IBF, and WBC (We Be Crooks) bringing up the rear.
Currently, I think I consider one WBO champ as the actual champ of his division, and that's because Teofimo Lopez has all the belts in that division. (LOL) Each org has its moments when it is the best, depending on who their champs are. This isn't one of those moments for the WBO.
Because they just asked golden goose hometown bodybuilder to get clear about his tittle? Golden goose is best moment in boxing.
As stated a little earlier when top fighters started holding and defending it. Klitschko and Brewster at heavy and Calzaghe at super middle are the first to come to mind.
When the great Thomas Hearns won it gained legitimacy and other respected long term world champions like Calzaghe and Prince Naseem Hamed gave it legitimacy as well. You are quite right about it not been viewed favourably initially. The joke goes when it was suggested to Julio Cesar Chavez that if he wanted to up in weight to his 4th division to Welterweight he may want to test the waters by fighting for and winning the WBO title. A confused bemused Chavez asks what is a WBO?
WBC is an absolute circus. WBA is kind of a joke with their Regular and Super designations. IBF no one really cares about. That leaves the WBO as the nose legitimate for the time being.
