Who "legitimized" the WBO?

[$ LegenD $]

ive always liked the wbo rankings....

[dansweeney]

If i remember right, Holmes gave credence to the IBF by fighting for and winning their title when he was in his prime. Again, if my memory serves me was it DLH that fought for and won a WBO belt when he was a lightweight and thus put that organization on the map?

Thomas hearns at super middleweight. then he fought wbc guy sugar ray to unify and got robbed. i believe he put the wbo on the map

[dansweeney]

at heavyweight morrison had it and then rid**** bowe had it for the 3rd holyfield fight. he was probably the first real champ to carry it at heavy

[Crazy Dude]

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.

[neils7147933]

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. [1]"

LOL

[JuicyJuice]

Nigel Benn.

[TheEvilSaint]

i think wlad did, IMO.

i thought about starting this thread a while ago. oh well.

[gnostic19]

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 ****(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.

[Super Cruiserweight]

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....

[TheEvilSaint]

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.