Gennadiy Golovkin. Jermall Charlo. Demetrius Andrade. Jermell Charlo. Patrick Teixeira. Errol Spence. Manny Pacquiao.

Terence Crawford. Sebastian Formella. Jose Ramirez. Josh Taylor. Nicolas Ponce. Teofimo Lopez. Devin Haney. Miguel Berchelt.

JoJo Diaz. Gervonta Davis. Jamel Herring. Gary Russell Jr. Shakur Stevenson. Josh Warrington. Rene Alvarado. Luis Nery.

Murodjon Akhmadaliev. Angelo Leo. Naoya Inoue. John Riel Casimero. Nordine Oubaali. Michell Banquez. Juan Estrada. Jerwin Ancajas. Roman Gonzalez.

Kazuto Ioka. Gideon Buthelezi. 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.

Torres left in , giving way to Puerto Rican lawyer Francisco Valcarcel as president. Valcarcel has held that position since. While the IBF had awarded recognition to Larry Holmes soon after its inception in as they did with several established champions in the lower weight divisions , the WBO sanctioned a fight between two relatively unknown fighters, Francesco Damiani winner of the super heavyweight silver medal at the Summer Olympics and Johnny DuPlooy , to determine the inaugural holder of its own heavyweight title in All other sanctioning bodies of boxing recognized the then-undefeated Mike Tyson as the undisputed heavyweight champion.

Damiani, meanwhile, went on to become the first WBO heavyweight champion. In the lighter weight divisions, however, long-reigning champions during the s such as Chris Eubank , Dariusz Michalczewski , Johnny Tapia , and Naseem Hamed gave the WBO title increasingly more prestige.

Since the early s, the WBO has awarded the honorary title of "Super Champion" to certain boxers, in any given weight class, who fulfil a set of distinguished criteria.

There are currently only two female boxers who earned the distinction of "Super Champion": Amanda Serrano and Claressa Shields.

This title is not an actual world championship in the same vein as the WBA's Super titles ; it is more akin to a lifetime achievement award.

A boxer awarded the status of WBO Super Champion cannot win the title from or lose it to another boxer; recognition as Super Champion can be maintained even if a boxer moves to another weight class.

The WBO publishes monthly rankings, with fighters that win regional championships sanctioned by its subsidiaries being given priority.

The World Championship Committee exists to name a mandatory challenger , whom the incumbent champion is forced to fight within an arbitrary timeframe, when this term should be extended, when eliminatories are warranted and when a title is stripped.

There are other superficial differences between the WBO and other bodies, such as the listing of the lb.

Prior to the WBO being recognized as a major sanctioning body, the system displayed vulnerability when deceased boxer Darrin Morris was moved up twice in the super-middleweights in In addition, Morris had only fought once in the three years before his death, beating a fighter with only 17 wins out of 81 fights.

Valcarcel said, "We obviously missed the fact that Darrin was dead. It is regrettable. The series finale of Japanese manga series Bleach revolves around the main cast gathering to watch a fight in which a character named Yasutora Sado is involved, having become a professional boxer ten years after the storyline and challenging for the WBO world heavyweight championship.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Sanctioning organization which recognizes professional boxing world champions.

East Side Boxing. Retrieved June 3, The WBO, which was introduced in , 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.

The New York Times. December 20, Archived from the original on November 19, Retrieved November 14, WBO ".

Archived from the original on August 3, Retrieved November 15, Archived from the original on February 4, May Unification bouts with other organizations will be considered on a case to case basis.

February Archived from the original on February 2, Regulations of World Championship Contests. Ana November 20, Retrieved November 21, Archived from the original on August 19, Retrieved August 23, Retrieved September 10, Retrieved December 4, The Independent.