THE WORLD BOXING ORGANIZATION
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 19 Oct 2016
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is having its 29th Annual Convention at San Juan, Puerto Rico. WBO is an international sanctioning organization which recognizes professional boxing world champions and ranks boxers in all weight divisions. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship governing bodies, together with the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and International Boxing Federation (IBF).
The WBO's headquarters are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. But as reported by PhilBoxing.com owner Dong Secuya who is now attending the convention, with a unanimous vote from the executive committee and a unanimous vote from the WBO members across the world, the WBO authorized the executive committee to relocate the World Boxing Organization headquarters from Puerto Rico to the State of Florida.
The WBO was organized after a bunch of Puerto Rican and Dominican businessmen broke out of the World Boxing Association's 1988 annual convention in Isla Margarita, Venezuela over certain disputes on what rules should be applied.
The WBO then elected its first president Ramon Pina Acevedo of the Dominican Republic. The WBO staged world championship bouts with the first championship fight was for the vacant supermiddleweight title between Thomas Hearns and James Kinchen, Hearns won by majority decision.
The WBO then elected former world light-heavyweight champion Jos? Torres of Ponce, Puerto Rico, as its next president. In 1996, Torres gave way to Puerto Rican lawyer Francisco Varcarcel as president until the present as he was reelected during the ongoing convention.
Long-reigning champions during the 1990s such as Chris Eubank, Dariusz Michalczewski, Johnny Tapia, and Naseem Hamed gave the WBO title more prestige. The WBO was also made popular by boxers such as Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar De La Hoya, Nigel Benn, Ronald "Winky" Wright, Joe Calzaghe, and Wladimir Klitschko becoming champions.
In Europe, the WBO gained more acceptance during its formative years than in the U.S., and WBO champions always fared well in unification bouts with WBC, WBA, and IBF champions. Like what WBO light heavyweight champ Dariusz Michalczewski has done when he unified his belt with the WBA and IBF titles by defeating Virgil Hill. In 2001, the WBA began giving the same recognition to WBO champions as to WBA, WBC and IBF titlists.
In 2004 the WBC began recognizing WBO champions on its ranking listings. The IBF started to acknowledge the WBO in February 2007. While WBO regulations clearly recognize the other three sanctioning bodies. For many years, similar to the IBF, Japan based fighters were not permitted to fight for WBO titles. In 2012, the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) finally recognized the governing body. In August 2016, the WBO Asia Pacific Championship was recognized by the JBC and the Japan Professional Boxing Association (JPBA).
Francisco 'Paco' Valcarcel (C) speaks after his reelection as WBO president during Tuesday's boxing body's elections in Puerto Rico. With him, from left, 2nd Vice-President Jacinth Bryan-Labega, Championship and Ratings Committee chairman Luis Batista-Salas, 1st Vice-President John Duggan and legal adviser Andrew Horn.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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