WBO in the 1990's

The WBO in the 90s were more semi-legit than anybody considers the IBO at present (the latter org have a LONG uphill climb if they want to follow in the WBO's footsteps) but they were still a long way away from being seen as peers of the IBF/WBA/WBC.

In those days the WBO served as almost a halfway point between Euro champ and real world champ.

 

None of these guys were considered the real world champ back then until they moved up a level and one the more established belts at the time and a few of them never did that and were never considered the best in their division, Eubank specifically used the WBO belt to hoodwink the British public into believing he was the best in his division while ducking the other more respected champs in his respective divisions that he reigned in.

 

All the above fighters mentioned weren`t considered the best in their division while they were WBO champs, a couple went on to become much more respected and proved themselves but the majority of that list didn`t, a few came close to world class also.

 

All the fighters Eubank beat were nowhere near as good as Collins, Benn fought better against McClellan than he did vs Eubank in both their bouts, Eubank made mistakes all over the place the top 10 in each year doesn`t stay the same in quality, I watched most of Eubank`s title fights and he was a total prat making mistakes that would be punished by some of the other WBO champs like Winky Wright who would have exposed Eubank completely.

 

The WBO really got noticed in the UK in the early days with Benn beating Dewitt and Barkley in tremendous fights and then the Eubank fight which was also a brilliant fight !(was it really that long ago?) These fights really grabbed the public interest being on ITV live and free helped .I dont think anyone really cared that it wasn't a proper title .This success lead to the WBO being recognized as a genuine title as it is now .

 

Ray Mercer, Riddick Bowe, Vitali, Darius M, Chris Eubank, Steve Collins, Joe Calzaghe, Nigel Benn, Gerald McClellan, Verno Phillips, Winky Wright, Hector Camacho, ODLH...

I assume the list above is the one you was referring to?

Which fighters off that list only "came close" to being world class?

Every fighter there outside if Phillips has been a top 3 type guy in their respective divisions....Calzaghe, Bowe and Vitali being the number 1 in their divisions.

Again fighters make the title of the other way around.

 

I dont agree with all of that but that wasnt the point of the post. The post was more to do with the WBO title at that weight and that the title at that weight had been involved in arguably more (at that time when the post was written some years back) more bigger fights and at that time with more established champs at that weight

 

I'm pretty sure Bowe dumped the WBO title because Holyfield didn't want to fight him for it.
Mercer did something similar.
The WBO heavyweight title was considered a joke. Unlike the IBF, who had gained instant credibility in the 1980s by recognizing Larry Holmes at heavyweight (and Hagler at middleweight, among others), the WBO decided in 1989 to sanction Francesco Damiani versus Johnny DuPlooy as their inaugural heavyweight championship fight.
This was at a time when the whole world could name who the heavyweight champion of the world was. Mike Tyson.

At other weights, the WBO belt could acquire a little more value, but was still regarded as the least of the titles.

 

The very first WBO champion was Thomas Hearns.

Hearns beat James Kinchen in 1988 at super middle in the first WBO title fight ever.

The NABF belt was also up for grabs and the commentary team considered that to be the main title on the line; they thought the new WBO belt was a joke.

Historic fight.

Not only was it the first ever WBO title fight, but it was also the first universally recognised super middleweight fight (The IBF had tried a super middle divison a few years earlier, but nobody took much notice).

To cap it all off this fight also made Hearns the first ever five weight champion in boxing history.

It wasn't really a classic, but its worth a watch. Tough fight for Hearns.

 

yep odlh then could have wrote his own ticket and every champ would have fought him.
he was seen as the superstar in waiting
i remember all the hype about him in the build up to the olympics.

the reason he went the wbo route is that he got a shock in his 10th or 11th fight v a complete jorneyman gimmee opponent and was decked.
south american but cant remember his name.
odlh got up and then went down again / he was only young 19 or 20 and was surprised.

after the fight people were saying he was weight drained finding it hard to make weight boiling down to much
they wanted to make him a multi weight champ so jimmy bredahl a very thin/ jab and move fighter with no power was picked for the wbo shot
odlh duly won
he then fought a italian again with no power and from memory he was badly wobbled in that fight as well and after that as he went up in weight his resilience got better

but because of his knockdown and then badly wobbled they went the easier WBO route at lightweight and then as he moved up his comp improed as did he .

 

Yeah, I think the WBO was formed a matter of days before the Hearns-Kinchen fight.
If I remember rightly, the founding members were a splinter group from the WBA.

Ray Leonard was scheduled to face Don Lalonde 3 days later, for his historic "five titles" (somehow getting the WBC to allow their LHW champion to defend his LHW title at 168 and get the new vacant SMW thrown in) ..... and Hearns already had world titles in four divisions, so he beat Leonard to it when he accepted the WBO sanctioning the Kinchen fight.
Close fight though !
I have a feeling Kinchen was a late substitute too (for Fulgencio Obelmejias).

Anyway, after that initial fanfare, the WBO found best support in the UK and Europe.

 

good post /good memory
its only when you put the fights and names up that they came back to me

play an 80s song and i remember the year / not so with boxing for some reason

 

The WBO in the 90's was a tad bit more prestigious than the IBO today, but it was easily the lesser of the 4 sanctioning organizations.

The WBC and WBA were the titles that meant most, the IBF was the lesser of the 3.



WBC
WBA
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IBF
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WBO