I know Moorer gave up the WBO title so chicken shits like Bowe and Hlyfield couldn't continue to duck him for a World title shot but when did Bowe give up his WBO title? After he beat Gonzalez? What was his reasoning if he did get rid of it?
Because he couldn't be bothered any more with it, basically. HBO refused to recognise the belt so didn't want to display it, so he wasn't getting tv publicity, and the other boxing orgs wouldn't rank him while he held it. So, he ditched it. And as far as I know, that was pretty much the reason Moorer ditched it as well. At that time it was seen along the lines of like the IBO title is nowadays.
That's correct. I don't think it's a hard & fast rule any more, but back in the day the WBA and WBC wouldn't put a fighter in their top-10 if they held the WBO.
It's still like that today except they're a lil bit more discrete about it. This was right around the time the massive mis-management of Bowe began.
