So when exactly did the WBO become a major world boxing title?
There are too many sanctioning bodies in professional boxing. During the 1970s and early 1980s, we had the World Boxing Association and the World Boxing Council. Those were the two sanctioning bodies that dictated the status of champions and contenders in boxing. But things got more crowded in the 1980s, beginning with the establishment of the International Boxing Federation in 1983.
The IBF recognized Larry Holmes as their heavyweight champion, and he accepted. At that time Holmes had been the long reigning WBC and lineal heavyweight world champion, and he relinquished the WBC belt and now held the IBF. This provided the organization with instant credibility.
The World Boxing Organization was created 5 years later in 1988. But unlike the situation with the IBF, it ultimately took many years before the WBO became recognized as a major world title.
This begs the question – when exactly did the WBO become a major world title?
It is not the simplest of questions to answer, which causes confusion and inconsistencies when evaluating WBO champions of the past. During the late 1980s, all of the 1990s, and into the early 2000s – the WBO was not a major world title on par with the other 3. But somewhere along the way, the WBO started slowly gaining credibility outside of the United States, and prior to the next decade in the 2010s, by that point it had become accepted as a 4th major world title in an already confusing landscape with too many alphabet titles that water down what it means to be a “world” champion.
So when did the WBO become recognized as a major world title?
This edition of Rummy’s Corner will attempt to analyze some of the history of the WBO in an attempt to identify a tangible point in time when the WBO had completed the transition from minor trinket to major world title. For one man’s opinion, please watch and enjoy the video.