World Boxing Organization
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The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is a sanctioning organization currently recognizing professional boxing world champions. Its offices are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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[edit] History
The WBO started after a group of Puerto Rican and Dominican businessmen broke out of the World Boxing Association's 1988 annual convention in Isla Margarita, Venezuela, claiming to be disgusted by the WBA's questionable rules and ratings systems.[clarification needed]
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. Its first championship fight was for its vacant 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, as its president. Torres left in 1996, giving way to Puerto Rican lawyer Francisco Varcarcel as president. Varcarcel has been there since.
The WBO was made popular by boxers such as Oscar De La Hoya, Marco Antonio Barrera,Ronald "Winky" Wright, Naseem Hamed, Verno Phillips, Michael Carbajal, Johnny Tapia, Harry Simon,Jermain Taylor, Nigel Benn, Paul "Silky" Jones, Gerald McClellan, Joe Calzaghe, Steve Collins, Daniel Santos, Michael Moorer, Dariusz Michalczewski, Chris Eubank, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko and Chris Byrd in the 1990s.
[edit] Criticism
[edit] Initial holder of heavyweight title
The WBO sanctioned a fight between two relatively unknown fighters, Francesco Damiani and Johnny DuPlooy, to determine the initial holder of its heavyweight title in 1989, although all other sanctioning bodies of boxing recognized Mike Tyson as the heavyweight champion at the time. Damiani went on to win the initial WBO heavyweight title. [1] [2]
[edit] Ranking of deceased boxer
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." Valcarcel also stated that other boxing sanctioning organizations had made similar errors in the past by continuing to rank another boxer after he was dead. [3] 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. [4]
[edit] Current WBO world title holders
| Weight class: | Title holder: | Date won: |
|---|---|---|
| Mini flyweight |  Donnie Nietes |
September 30, 2007 |
| Junior flyweight |  Iván Calderón |
August 25, 2007 |
| Flyweight |  Omar Andrés Narváez |
July 13, 2002 |
| Junior bantamweight | José López |
March 28, 2009 |
| Bantamweight | Gerry Peñalosa |
August 11, 2007 |
| Junior featherweight | Juan Manuel López |
June 7, 2008 |
| Featherweight |  Steven Luevano |
July 14, 2007 |
| Junior lightweight | Román Martínez |
September 6, 2008 |
| Lightweight |  Juan Manuel Márquez |
February 28, 2009 |
| Junior welterweight | Timothy Bradley |
April 4, 2009 |
| Welterweight | Miguel Cotto |
February 21, 2009 |
| Junior middleweight |  Sergiy Dzinziruk |
December 3, 2005 |
| Middleweight | Kelly Pavlik |
September 29, 2007 |
| Super middleweight |  Károly Balzsay |
January 10, 2009 |
| Light heavyweight | Zsolt Erdei |
January 17, 2004 |
| Cruiserweight |  |Ola Afolabi |
March 22, 2009 |
| Heavyweight | Wladimir Klitschko |
February 23, 2008 |
[edit] Former champions
[edit] WBO affiliated organizations
- North American Boxing Organization (NABO)
- WBO LATINO (LATINO)
- WBO Asia-Pacific
[edit] Transition of WBO titles
- List of WBO world champions
- List of WBO Asia Pacific champions
- List of WBO Inter-Continental champions
- List of WBO Latino champions
[edit] Other boxing organizations
- World Boxing Association (WBA)
- World Boxing Council (WBC)
- International Boxing Federation (IBF)
- World Professional Boxing Federation (WPBF)
- International Boxing Organization (IBO)
- World Boxing Union (WBU)
- International Boxing Association (IBA)
[edit] References
- ^ Hurley, Matthew (2007-08-11). "Klitschko Ibragimov Close To Being Set For February". East Side Boxing. http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=13185&more=1. Retrieved on 2009-06-03. "The WBO, which was introduced in 1989, was not generally considered a legitimate heavyweight belt at the time. The organization’s first heavyweight champion was Francesco Damiani whose short reign came during Mike Tyson’s run as undisputed champion."
- ^ Hauser, Thomas (2008-03-16). "The Heavyweight Follies". SecondsOut.com. http://www.secondsout.com/columns/thomas-hauser/the-heavyweight-follies. Retrieved on 2009-06-03. "And the WBO belt has NEVER been carried into the ring by the true heavyweight champion of the world. The first WBO heavyweight beltholder was Francesco Damiani, who won the bauble by knocking out Johnny DuPlooy in 1989."
- ^ Bunce, Steve (2001-02-13). "Death no barrier to fighter's rise in rankings". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/death-no-barrier-to-fighters-rise-in-rankings-691583.html. Retrieved on 1 March 2009.
- ^ Graham, Tim (2001-02-20). "New WBO division: Dead weight". ESPN.com. http://assets.espn.go.com/boxing/columns/graham/1097210.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-01.
