WBO was considered a 2nd tier title until 2004

[joe strong]

here is the reason why...

From its inception in 1988 until Bernard Hopkins' victory over Oscar De La Hoya in 2004, the WBO did not allow its champions to hold the title of the three "major" sanctioning bodies, the IBF, WBA, or WBC. Up until that time, it was considered a second-tier world title and most boxers opted to fight for the more established titles.

The WBO sanctioned a fight between two relatively unknown fighters, Francesco Damiani (winner of the super heavyweight silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles) and Johnny DuPlooy, to determine the initial holder of its heavyweight title in 1989. All other sanctioning bodies of boxing recognized, the then undefeated, Mike Tyson as the heavyweight champion. Damiani went on to win the initial WBO heavyweight title.

all you doubters can google it...i was wrong about the ranking it gave you though as i said it gave you a top 10 in WBC when actually it was the european title not the WBO title. it was just another stepping stone belt to one of the big 3 nonetheless...

[joe strong]

here is list of guys who vacated...

damiani lost to mercer. mercer defended vs morrison then vacated

moorer beat bert cooper for vacant belt then vacated for bigger fight

morrison then beat foreman for vacant belt & lost to bennt. hide must have fought bentt to win title & then riddick bowe won the title off hide then vacated for bigger fight

henry akinwande beat jeremy williams for vacant title & vacated it right after to get WBC title shot at lennox

hide won vacant belt back & then vitali, byrd, wlad exchanged the title until sanders beat wlad. he then vacated to get WBC title shot vs vitali for vacant WBC belt...

that's just the HW picture. as usual some posters here think i'm discrediting european boxers but considering my favorite fighters are foreign i find it funny...andrew golota, lennox lewis, adamek are european, frans botha is from south africa, maskaev is russian,etc...

[joe strong]

look it up. i kept telling many of you this especially one guy but instead of letting me give proof he puts me on ignore & sends me red K & calls me names. i didn't even know what this red k\green k screen meant but now i do. once again i don't read boxingrec & go off that. i'm very surprised this wasn't looked up long ago by any doubters. it's all over the internet & if i can find it with a lack of computer knowledge then i'm sure any of you people that sit in front of your screen all day here & on every other boxing site could have easily found this information...

[Japanese Boxing]

Nobody has even responded to this thread. Are you okay bro?

[AntonTheMeh]

Nobody has even responded to this thread. Are you okay bro?

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[Ray Corso]

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[joe strong]

Nobody has even responded to this thread. Are you okay bro?

Lol...I got put on ignore by some poster after I posted the WBO title was not recognized as world level til 2004. He didn't believe then put me on ignore. So I made a thread with the info...actually I'm not alright...I'm loco & am seeing bugs in the snow

[Earl-Hickey]

Yeah it was kinda like the IBO is now

Hopefully the IBO doesn't become accepted as well though

[Earl-Hickey]

Yeah it was kinda like the IBO is now

Hopefully the IBO doesn't become accepted as well though

[Cardinal Buck]

It didn't go from nothing to something overnight. It gained most of its legitimacy slowly, largely based on Hamed and Calzaghe's insistence that it was a legitimate belt.