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The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is a sanctioning organization currently recognizing professional boxing world champions. The organization is recognized as one of the four major world championship groups by the IBHOF alongside the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Association. WBO offices are located in San Juan, Puerto Rico. ==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 over disputes regarding what rules should be applied. 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 its vacant 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 José Torres of Ponce, Puerto Rico, as its president. Torres left in 1996, giving way to Puerto Rican lawyer Francisco Varcarcel as president. Varcarcel has been there since. At heavyweight, especially in the United States, the organization struggled to gain credibility as a major sanctioning body, with WBO heavyweight title-holders Michael Moorer, Riddick Bowe, and Henry Akinwande relinquishing the title to pursue other options. Boxing publication ''The Ring'' also did not recognize the WBO, despite having recognized the IBF after its inception in 1983, five years prior to the WBO. In the lighter weight divisions however, long-reigning champions during the 1990s such as Chris Eubank, Dariusz Michalczewski, Johnny Tapia, and Naseem Hamed gave the WBO title much 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 holding its title. In Europe, the WBO was more accepted during its early years than in the U.S., and WBO champions always fared well in unification bouts with WBC, WBA, and IBF champions. (For instance, WBO light heavyweight champ Dariusz Michalczewski unified his belt with the WBA and IBF titles by defeating Virgil Hill.) By 2001, the WBA was giving the same recognition to WBO champions as to WBA, WBC and IBF champions. In 2004 the WBC began naming WBO champions on its ranking listings.〔Compare and 〕 The IBF did not recognize the WBO in May 2006,〔 〕 but was doing so by February 2007.〔 〕 WBO regulations explicitly recognize the other three sanctioning bodies.〔 〕 For many years, as with the IBF, boxers based in Japan were not permitted to fight for WBO titles. In 2012, the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) recognized the governing body. Fighters who have been named "WBO Super Champion" include: Wladimir Klitschko, Marco Huck, Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, Kelly Pavlik, Óscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Márquez, Juan Díaz, Marco Antonio Barrera, Fernando Montiel, Jorge Arce, Omar Andrés Narváez, and Iván Calderón. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「World Boxing Organization」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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