W.B.O. Huh..What is it good for...?

Evening all.
Now this is probably my peculiar bias ,but I'm going to chuck it out there.As you may guess by the title of the article, I'm far from convinced that the W.B.O. has been a useful addition to world boxing. Started in 1988, straight away it attempted to grab cheap publicity by deciding that Thomas Hearns (Thomas Hearns!)was the guy at Supermiddle.He outpointed a Mr. James Kinchen.
Chris Eubank won the WBO middleweight, and was allowed to keep the belt despite being outboxed several times by mediocre opposition;that was my main memory of the new W.B.O. during the 90s. Chris was a great fighter in my book, but was allowed to coast in the U.K. taking big paycheques against said nobodies.
The W.B.O. clearly needed him as a high-profile flagship performer.
Whilst the likes of Riddick Bowe ,McClennan ,De La Hoya, Pacquiao, Barrera, Naz, Vitali have held belts,they've usually used it as a brief stepping stone to greater things. Looking at their list of Heavyweight chaps is sobering, also; when Mike Tyson was ranked either number one in 1989 by the other belts, they sanctioned two guys called Francesco DAmiani and Johnny DuPlooy as the most deserving of their Heavy belt!
I must admit ,it IS a bias, but whenever a fighter is crowned a WBO chap, I turn a blind eye. I was mildly annoyed that Nathan Cleverley thinks the Calzaghe blueprint is the way to go...i.e., Frank Warren feeding him nobodies on the WBO gravy-train.Cleverley has to be one of our best prospects, but I fear he's gonna ,y'know,coast and coast, until he fights someone decent;maybe in 2019.
Oh, and in 2001, they ranked Darren Morris as their super-middle number 5. I'm not saying he wasn't a great fighter-he may well have been.It was just that he happened to be dead....!
It's true that the I.B.F. body received a hard time when it came along, however with three main belts the symmetry of that number is quite appealing;unifying three titles did seem to add a certain something,as Tyson and Curry would no doubt attest.
It does seem that the body has gained some small credibility since its inception,probably down to the fact that good fighters will always be grateful for a bauble,albeit for a temporary time only, if need be.However, with Holyfield "winning" the "W.B.F" "title" not long ago, surely we are all agreed that a belt may very well mean next to nothing at all.
Finally,I don't think the Americans pay any attention to the W.B.O., and I don't think they ever will.
Time to campaign to get rid of the superflous governing bodies, and it should start with the W.B.O.

Seems the WBO is Warren's belt, the WBC is Mexicans-only, and Don King regularly has his mitts on the WBA. Makes me wonder why I even bother following boxing.

Just had a read about that Morris guy.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrin_Morris

That is RIDICULOUS.

Fab link..I laughed so hard I neary sprayed Kenco out of my nostrils

Crazy stuff about Morris, i don't pay much attention to the WBO either, it's been held by some decent champions but some of the no1 contenders are awful.

The WBO is generally a joke but you do now and then get a good fighter holding the belt for instance Cotto and Pacquiao at Welterweight

andygf wrote:Fab link..I laughed so hard I neary sprayed Kenco out of my nostrils

Same here, only minus the Kenco. How the hell he was bumped up the rankings at all, even without being dead, is beyond me.

The whole Cleverly business was mightily disappointing too. Wonder how long it'll be before he's thrown in with anyone live.

BALTIMORA wrote:Seems the WBO is Warren's belt, the WBC is Mexicans-only, and Don King regularly has his mitts on the WBA. Makes me wonder why I even bother following boxing.

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It's true, it's all so bent it's unreal.

I wish someone would jump in and make a UFC type boxing organisation, I personally don't really like UFC but they've got the right idea the way they put competitive matches together all the time.

Incidentally there's no fighters with the all important in boxing "0" which I think shows the matches are competitive and shows how certain fighters 0's are manufactured, IMO if you fight the best all the time you are going to lose at some point, and there's no shame in losing to the best

Quite. What Frank Warren's link is exactly to the WBO, I think we should be told!
Cleverley has really ballsed up going with him.And didn't his mate Joe fell out with Ol' Fish Eyes anyhow.Popkins is exactly twice Clev's age yet if Warren makes any effort to put his "world champ" in with him, well, I'll declare myself a Coldplay fan.

Seems like most the time when a boxer has his '0' at the end of his career what it really means is that he hasn't fought everyone he should have.

Sturm vs Macklin, humdinger of a fight!!

And Macklin another ex Warren fighter done better without him!

i think burns is the prime example of warrens WBO love in. i like burns but the level of his opponents is shocking for a world champion.

i think burns is the prime example of warrens WBO love in. i like burns but the level of his opponents is shocking for a world champion.
........................
He won the title less than a year ago and proved he was world class by outboxing/outfought a genuine world champ.

Calzaghe wasn't half bad and he held the title, the WBO is just as credible, it's the champion that makes the title. Although i think the WBF/WBU/IBO should be scrapped, asap.

yeah i agree but since then he's had a easy ride. why not push for a unifaction fight?

If he gets past Cook he needs to be looking to step the opposition up, the Martinez win was great against a genuine world champion, but has had a couple of easy fights since then, i don't know what Cook will bring to the ring at this stage but i still expect Ricky to take a UD whatever, the Glasgow crowd was put off and genuine world class opponents would bring them back, Frank Warren at his best, boxing wouldn't be the same without him in this country but he's stiil a tool, milking every title he gets his hands on.

If he gets past Cook he needs to be looking to step the opposition up, the Martinez win was great against a genuine world champion, but has had a couple of easy fights since then, i don't know what Cook will bring to the ring at this stage but i still expect Ricky to take a UD whatever, the Glasgow crowd was put off and genuine world class opponents would bring them back, Frank Warren at his best, boxing wouldn't be the same without him in this country but he's stiil a tool, milking every title he gets his hands on.
..............
I like Frank, i won't lie, i agree with you guys about him needing to step up after the B level at best Laryea, Evensen, but Frank will get him big fights, to be fair Fana's people wanted him to go over to Africa which would of been suicidal decision wise, and he got Martinez in Scotland by putting the money up when the fight was scheduled for Puerto Rico.

Yeah he did a good job getting the Martinez fight in Glasgow, played a part in the result IMO, in terms of burns turning in a career best performance (his schooling of Graham Earl earlier on in his career wasn't far behind). To be fair there's not a lot of fights out there but he should try and get it on with Fana, although Africa wouldn't be a good option.

Hmmm the Limerick post has been Locked. Life will never be the same again...C'mon Windy, where else can we debate royalty, talk about self-testing for prostate illness,Froch's nose and debate Wlad's sexuality?
I'm burnt out discussing boxing clearly, if my recent reply quota to articles is anything to go by....

andygf wrote:Hmmm the Limerick post has been Locked. Life will never be the same again...C'mon Windy, where else can we debate royalty, talk about self-testing for prostate illness,Froch's nose and debate Wlad's sexuality?
I'm burnt out discussing boxing clearly, if my recent reply quota to articles is anything to go by....

The Lord only knows, andy.

To be honest, I didn't know it had been locked, so ' Not guilty, guv'nor.'

That's a shame, I believe it was the longest running thread of v2's short history.

Seems to be still open, though threads automatically lock themselves after a given number of pages, ( twenty, I believe, ) or comments. It's in its third generation now, I believe, and it's all harmless fun, so no reason at all why it should be locked.

andygf wrote:Fab link..I laughed so hard I neary sprayed Kenco out of my nostrils

That made me laugh! Except, er my nostrils were clear.

WBO = World Boxing Organisation or Warren's Box Office, says it all really.

first of all, BRILLIANT article title.

its weird for me to think that the wbo is pretty new, yet its been taken on as one of the big 4. i relate it to calzaghe and as most people say, warren.

ThanksOasisBFC, was pretty chuffed with it myself.From now on my articles may be merely an amusing in-joke for obscurist music fans.
Joe Calzaghe wised up later rather than sooner..I belt he felt like waving a traffic cone above his head, saying ,"Stop telling me what to do!"
(That one's for Billy Shears)