Who "legitimized" the WBO?

i think the official match that made WBO legit was brewster vs wlad.

Well, when Wlad Klitschko was the WBO Heavy champ during Lennox's reign, you didn't hear very many people saying there was more than one champion, but then he lost it to Sanders, go it back somehow and then lost it again to Brewster...then it was a legit piece of the heavyweight title? I was confused by this and still am... I did not even know that the WBO was a belt in the heavyweight division when Lewis reigned supreme. No one cared. All boxing fans cared about was that Lewis was considered the best. Oscar DelaHoya won the WBO super featherweight title and defended it twice before moving up to the lightweight ranks in order to fight for the WBO lightweight title. There he won and defended it six time's before he relinquished it only because he moved up in weight class and fought for the WBC light welterweight title. So DelaHoya went on to capture the WBC title. DelaHoya then went 8 years before fighting for a WBO belt again which he did in his first venture to the middleweight division against Felix Sturm.

The WBO has grown to be legitimized. There is not one fighter who changed the image. At the core is the middleweight/Super Middleweight where we have had Barkley, Hearns, Benn, Eubank, Collins and Calzaghe as WBO champions . That is a time span of nearly 20 years and I suppose that if the names on the WBU list in 20 years time are decent that belt would have become legitimized as well. Well said. I still think DLH went a ways in propping it up.

The WBO has grown to be legitimized. There is not one fighter who changed the image. At the core is the middleweight/Super Middleweight where we have had Barkley, Hearns, Benn, Eubank, Collins and Calzaghe as WBO champions . That is a time span of nearly 20 years and I suppose that if the names on the WBU list in 20 years time are decent that belt would have become legitimized as well. However, I think it is interesting to note that as the WBO becomes legitimized a lot of boxing fans are turning to The Ring magazine title as the only champion. I know that 5 years ago I could name most of the alphabet champions in most weight divisions but now I could only tell you the Heavyweight alphabets and The Ring Champions in each weight.

All these talk about Eubank, WTF. Eubank scared of McCallumn for christsake. Is Eubank is even in IBHOF> :confused: no hes not, and reasonably so.

The guy who did the most for the WBO was Naseem Hamed in the 90's

Well Chris Eubanks Only Held The Wbo Belt And He Was One Of The Biggest Stars And Names In The Sport, And Thee Biggest Earner In The Sport......then The Prince Carried It On.... nonsense, complete and utter nonsense.

I guess it's just as likely that someone outside the ring, as opposed to inside, had as much to do with it's rise in significance. That's, if indeed, Torres' rise to it's presidency gave it authenticity. I guess the follow up would be...does it carry same amount of importance as the other three organizations? Now, that could mean all three are equal in that NONE of them matter for shit(which is what i believe, incidentally). I rank them this way... 3 turds for the IBF & WBO, 2 for the WBA and 1 for the BC.

i think wlad did, IMO. i thought about starting this thread a while ago. oh well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBO "The WBO twice moved Darrin Morris up in its super-middleweight rankings in 2001, despite the fact that he was dead. Morris was #7 at the time of his death and #5 when the WBO discovered the error. Varcarcel said "we obviously missed the fact that Darrin was dead. It is regrettable." One week after British newspaper The Independent broke the story, one of the three men ranking the boxers, Gordon Volkman, still had not heard that Morris was dead. In addition, Morris had only fought once in three years, beating a boxer with only 15 wins out of 78 fights. " LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBO The WBO's first president was Ramon Pina Acevedo of the Dominican Republic. Soon after its beginning, the WBO was staging world championship bouts around the globe. Their first championship fight was for their vacant World Super-Middleweight title, between Thomas Hearns and James Kinchen, Hearns won by decision. In order to gain respectability, the WBO next elected former world light-heavyweight champion Jose Torres of Ponce, Puerto Rico its president. Torres achieved his goal and left in 1996, giving way to Puerto Rican lawyer Francisco Varcarcel to succeed him as president. Varcarcel has been there since. The WBO was made popular by boxers such as Britain's flamboyant champion Chris Eubank, thanks to his 24 WBO world championship bouts in the 1990's and mostly thanks to his ability to make an event spectacular even if his opponent was dull.

ive always liked the wbo rankings....

I think it might have been George Foreman, though I may be wrong: wasn't this the only belt he kept after giving up the other belts so that he wouldn't have to fight the number #1 contenders of the other belts? I might be wrong though since I can't keep track of all these alphabet belts...if correct, at least in America...in Europe, not sure, everybody seems to favor this belt so they didn't have to fight Americans ;), except of course LENNOX LEWIS

I agree with most mentioned, plus Michalczewski as the reigning WBO champ at 175, unified the WBA and IBF to go with his WBO, and when the sanctioning bodies played dirty pool and stripped him immediately, then the WBO title became THE title at LHW for many years, and is still to this day technically the linear champion (Erdei).

In HW division, Vitaliy Klitschko, Chris Byrd, Wladimir Kltischko, and Lamon Brewster have legitimized the WBO belt. ... and probably Sergei Liakovich.

It was well-known a couple of years before that, though. But yeah, they have helped to secure it as a recognized organization...whatever that's worth.

Well, when Wlad Klitschko was the WBO Heavy champ during Lennox's reign, you didn't hear very many people saying there was more than one champion, but then he lost it to Sanders, go it back somehow and then lost it again to Brewster...then it was a legit piece of the heavyweight title? I was confused by this and still am...

Wasn't it HBO and Showtime and publications acknowledging it as a world title belt that did it? DLH having the belt in the mid 90s probably helped its cause. The WBA LOSING legitimacy probably helped it recently, as well as unification matches where the WBO champion wins over one of the other big 3 like in Corrales-Castillo I or Calzaghe-Lacy

oh yeah...him too. Shit, i tried to forget everything about that dude.

In HW division, Vitaliy Klitschko, Chris Byrd, Wladimir Kltischko, and Lamon Brewster have legitimized the WBO belt.