When did WBO become a respected belt

Time makes everything legitimate. Now that it's been established since 1988 we are talking over 30 years so it's a blink of the eye compared to the WBC but firmly established nonetheless.

 

I think it was around 2005-2006.

The only period in my life that I did not pay much attention to the sport was between 2003 and 2005 or so, because I just had too much going on. When I cam back to it in 2005 or 2006, I was shocked to see fans on the internet talking about the WBO belt just like it was one of the others.

Not sure what happened.

 

In 99 the other three recognized the WBO as a major sanctioning body. So, since 1999, I guess.

*Uuuu, 2000, apparently, my mistake. "In Europe, the WBO was more accepted during its early years than in the U.S., and WBO champions always fared well in unification bouts with WBA, WBC, and IBF champions. For example, WBO light heavyweight champion Michalczewski unified his title with the WBA and IBF titles by defeating Virgil Hill. WBO featherweight champion Naseem Hamed also defeated the reigning WBA, WBC and IBF champions in the same weight class. By 2000, the WBA was giving the same recognition to WBO champions as it did to WBC and IBF champions."

 

Wlad beating Sultan for the WBO belt legitimised it at HW in my eyes

 

It was a way for a fighter to say he was a "world" champion or "world" ranked. In any organization, how much you pay them has more to do with your status than does who you beat.
The WBO guys used to look much more like gangsters than the other guys.

 

At heavyweight the WBO belt did not become legitimate until about 2005.
It was certainly not considered legitimate while Lennox Lewis was around.
Then, a year or so after Lewis retired, when Lamon Brewster held the belt it somehow acquired legitimacy. The holders of the other belts were Byrd, Ruiz, Rahman.
Probably the fact that Brewster (who had already KO'd Wlad) KO'd Golota in 1 round shortly after Golota had fought even fights with Byrd and Ruiz, made the belt legit.
Which is ironic, because Brewster was far from being a great fighter.

 

According to CJ it was ever since the real hands of stones Margarito had it.

 

When Kaliphz released walk like a champion.

 

Would say about 2003

 

Lol they are all a joke.

Who you beat and at what point in their career you beat them has always been what mattered the most.

 

I swear I remember Nigel Benn tearing up his BBBofC license because they didn't recognise the WBO. That was around 1990.

I'm sure that was after he beat Doug DeWitt.


Maybe my brains gone funny... AGAIN.

 

Things started to change in the 90s with Barrera. Barrera was one of the best fighters in the world and for awhile, fought mainly for WBO belts. He would give up WBC belts and not pay the sanctioning fees. Hamed added credibility as well. But it was still not quite viewed upon as on the same level as the other 3. People didn’t consider Riddick Bowe a 2 time HW champion when he won the WBO belt from Herbie Hide. When Lewis and Holyfield fought in 1999, it was considered for the undisputed title, people weren’t thinking about Hide and Vitali having the WBO belt.

It’s pretty ridiculous. It was 2 recognized belts from the 1920s until the 1980s. Now it’s like accounting, there’s a big 4.

 

The mid 00’s.

Back in the 90’s, it wasn’t needed to become an undisputed champion, the Ring didn’t rate it, and it was often ridiculed by respected boxing writers such as Thomas Hauser.

This didn’t help either:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...1097210.html&usg=AOvVaw1Z0D2f8C-OwKgQUUwGwfGn

 

Dead right, there’s only one WORLD, or maybe I was lied to at school!

 

Early to mid 1990's was when they started to gain traction.

Nigel Benn won and defended the WBO middleweight strap on Wide World of Sports, and had memorable fights over it with Eubank in the UK; though it was still considered a fairly spurious title among the boxing mainstream. That started to change when WBO featherweight champion Naseem Hamed won a couple of unification fights, and then when Barerra won the WBO 122lb title and became an attraction on HBO.

That was the point when a lot of observers shrugged their shoulders and said "It's as good a belt as any." Then Joe Calzaghe wound up unifying most of 168 after reigning for a long time as WBO kingpin, and that pretty much sealed the deal.