what fighters "made" the wbo

[good right hand]

i remember when fighters like herbie hide, doug dewitt and bronco mckart carried the prestigous wbo world title... nobody really knew what it was.

however after fighters like chris eubank, steve collins, joe calzaghe and miguel cotto... it is creating a formidable argument to be with the other big three sanctioning bodies.

what fighter or fighters gave the wbo its fame and establishment?

[The Hitman]

I'm guessing here, but having the likes of Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank holding titles in the Middle/Super Middle glory days of the 90s probably brought some prestige to the WBO belts. As they say, its the champion who makes the title, not the other way round.

[JamRos]

Naseem Hamed

[Fat Tony]

In Germany: the Klitschkos and Dariusz Michalczewski

[Club Fighter]

Probably Naseem Hamed with his theatrics.

[0-1]

I read in a book recently that Benn and Eubank were allowed to fight for the title immediately on moving up, neither having appeared previously in the rankings. It seems to be a long tradition the WBO providing titles for Frank ****** fighters without their doing enough to get close to shots for any other strap.
Living in Britain there'll be a bias in my knowledge, but still the WBO champs I remember are Maccarinelli, Calzaghe, Hamed, Benn and Eubank, Hide, and only a couple of non-****** fighters such as Klitschko and Byrd. As much as the WBC have been tied to King, the WBO seems to spend a lot of its time legitimising ****** champs who rarely hold any other titles. As such, I still don't accord these titles the respect I do to, for example, the IBF championship, which seems tied a lot more closely to merit.
These WBO champs seem often (not always) to be content staying only that, and rarely testing if they are the world's best or not, even when they have a legitimate chance of ascending to that status, as in the case of Calzaghe and Hamed, if not Hide or Maccarinelli.

[thewoo]

I don't think that any fighter has made the WBO yet. It still gets almost 0 respect. Some good fighters that have carried the title though

Oscar Delahoya (though his having it at 160 made it lose a lot of credibiltiy)

Wladimir Klitscko

Micahel Moorer

[BigEars]

Calderon , Barrera , Johnny Gonzalez among many others have helped make it in the lower weight classes .

Brewster was the one who made the Heavyweight WBO title , before him it was just something people won to get a shot at one of the 'real titles' .

[CzarKyle]

Calderon , Barrera , Johnny Gonzalez among many others have helped make it in the lower weight classes .

Brewster was the one who made the Heavyweight WBO title , before him it was just something people won to get a shot at one of the 'real titles' .

For the WBO HW title it was guys like Klitchsko, Hide, Bowe, Morrison, Mercer that put star power into that title, but Brewster made it look serious. I still try to refuse counting it as a serious title though.

Side note: anybody know of any fights that made these titles important? For the HW we have Mercer Vs. Morrison (that KO is insane), Bentt Vs. Morrison (a quick shocker of a fight), Bowe Vs. Hide (I just enjoy that fight). I guess another landmark fight for the WBO is when De La Hoya beat Brehdal to win it.

[thewoo]

Bernard Hopkins at 160. When he beat Oscar he already had 3 other belts, but he paid the sanctioning fee and accepted the WBO thus acknowledging some significance

[fidds]

I read in a book recently that Benn and Eubank were allowed to fight for the title immediately on moving up, neither having appeared previously in the rankings. It seems to be a long tradition the WBO providing titles for Frank ****** fighters without their doing enough to get close to shots for any other strap.
Living in Britain there'll be a bias in my knowledge, but still the WBO champs I remember are Maccarinelli, Calzaghe, Hamed, Benn and Eubank, Hide, and only a couple of non-****** fighters such as Klitschko and Byrd. As much as the WBC have been tied to King, the WBO seems to spend a lot of its time legitimising ****** champs who rarely hold any other titles. As such, I still don't accord these titles the respect I do to, for example, the IBF championship, which seems tied a lot more closely to merit.
These WBO champs seem often (not always) to be content staying only that, and rarely testing if they are the world's best or not, even when they have a legitimate chance of ascending to that status, as in the case of Calzaghe and Hamed, if not Hide or Maccarinelli.

:tired

Hamed beat tom boom boom johnson for the ibf featherweight title and cesar soto for the wbc featherweight title :deal

The fight with wilfredo vasques was supposed to be for the wba title as vasques was champ but for some politics from the wba it wasn't.

so get ya facts right :thumbsup hamed cleaned out the division

[CzarKyle]

Bernard Hopkins at 160. When he beat Oscar he already had 3 other belts, but he paid the sanctioning fee and accepted the WBO thus acknowledging some significance

I'll always admire Hopkins for going for all the gold. Any fighter that does that gets top billing in my book (so I guess that means as much as I'm not a huge fan of RJJ he gets a shit load respect for getting the belts). I'm praying on someone to come along and do that (IN ANY DIVISION!).

[pokerbox]

Dont forget Joe Calzaghe unifying his WBO belt with Jeff Lacey's IBF title at Supermiddleweight.

[fidds]

what about darius michalczewski at 175 not only wbo champ but was also linear champ after beating virgil hill.

Roy jones stayed away from him like the plague :D

[0-1]

:tired

Hamed beat tom boom boom johnson for the ibf featherweight title and cesar soto for the wbc featherweight title :deal

The fight with wilfredo vasques was supposed to be for the wba title as vasques was champ but for some politics from the wba it wasn't.

so get ya facts right :thumbsup hamed cleaned out the division

I stand corrected; I should have checked that! I wouldn't do down Hamed's achievements at all: he was a great fighter, and from my home town to boot. As for Calzaghe on the other hand, he did of course unify the IBF with Lacy, but that was one other title after ten years, and he dropped it to defend against Peter Manfredo Jr! He's spent a lot longer sitting on that belt than doing anything to get rid of his top rivals in the division.

[Bigcat]

Thomas Hearns , Nigel Benn, Francesco Damiani, Ray Mercer, Steve Collins, Chris Eubank, Herbie Hide, Doug Dewitt, Johnny Duplooy. When it first took off it was frowned upon but nowadays its actually one of the most recognised titles.. IBF and WBC have damaged their own integrity over the last ten years.. It has come a long way as a new organisation......

[Illmatic]

Naseem Hamed

Spot on. He made the WBO b/c he kept the title despite rightfully becoming the champion of every other sanctioning body. He gave the title prestige b/c he was the undisputed champion of the division and didnt have a WBA, WBC, IBF title (well, he had the IBF for a couple fights and WBC for one). Then Barrera beat Hamed and continued what Hamed did, by becoming the man in that division with the WBO belt.

[thewoo]

I'll always admire Hopkins for going for all the gold. Any fighter that does that gets top billing in my book (so I guess that means as much as I'm not a huge fan of RJJ he gets a shit load respect for getting the belts). I'm praying on someone to come along and do that (IN ANY DIVISION!).

I think that you are giving bernard a little too much credit. Don't get me wrong it was a great accomplishment but he didn't do it out of desire. You said it perfectly, he went after the gold.

He carried the IBf belt for 7 years and never showed even the slightest desire to unify until Don King put together a very lucrative tournament. He didn't then go after the WBO belt until it was around Oscar's waste and bringing him $20 million

[nervousxtian]

The WBO means as much as the WBC, WBA, and IBF.

Jack shit.