WORLD BOXING ORGANIZATION

The 'World Boxing Organization' ('WBO') is a sanctioning organization currently recognizing professional boxing world champions. Its offices are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
WBO logo mark


Contents
History
Current WBO world title holders
Former champions
WBO affiliated organizations
Transition of WBO titles
References
External links

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.
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 the vacant World 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 its president. Torres achieved his goal and 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, Naseem Hamed, Michael Carbajal, Johnny Tapia, Harry Simon, Nigel Benn, Gerald McClellan, Joe Calzaghe, Steve Collins, Michael Moorer, Dariusz Michalczewski, Chris Eubank, Vitali Klitschko, Chris Byrd and Vladimir Klistchko in the 1990s.
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." 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.[1]

Current WBO world title holders


Weight class:Champion:Date won:
Mini flyweight Ivan Calderón May 3 2003
Junior flyweight Ivan Calderón August 25 2007
Flyweight Omar Andrés Narváez July 13 2002
Junior bantamweight Fernando Montiel April 9 2005
Bantamweight Gerry Penalosa August 11 2007
Junior featherweight Daniel Ponce de León October 29 2005
Featherweight Juan Manuel Márquez August 5 2006
Junior lightweight Joan Guzman  December 18 2006 
Lightweight Juan Diaz April 28 2007
Junior welterweight Ricardo Torres November 18 2006
Welterweight Paul Williams July 14 2007
Junior middleweight Sergiy Dzinziruk October 21 2006
Middleweight Jermain Taylor December 9 2006
Super middleweight Joe Calzaghe October 11 1997
Light heavyweight Zsolt Erdei January 17 2004
Junior heavyweight Enzo Maccarinelli July 8 2006
Heavyweight Sultan Ibragimov June 2 2007

Former champions


Main articles: List of WBO world champions

==world organizations recognized by the IBHOF==

World Boxing Association (WBA)

World Boxing Council (WBC)

International Boxing Federation (IBF)
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WBO affiliated organizations



North American Boxing Organization (NABO)

WBO LATINO (LATINO)

WBO Asia-Pacific
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

References


External links



World Boxing Organization official website

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