Quote Originally Posted by bradlee180 View Post
wbo was fairly new at the time, had only been around a few years, and nobody considered that wbo title as a legitimate World title, nor did anyone view Tommy Morrison as a World Heavyweight Champion.

It was a bauble or trinket that might help lead to a shot at the real Heavyweight Championship held by Riddick Bowe at the time or maybe the other Title held by Lennox Lewis. Bowe and Holyfield were doing the trilogy at the time.

Bentt was supposed to be a tuneup fight to prepare Morrison for a shot against Lennox Lewis who held the Title that Bowe threw in the trash rather than fight Lennox.

The lineage for the real undisputed man-who-beat-the-man was:
Mike Tyson
James Buster Douglas
Evander Holyfield
Riddick Bowe
Evander Holyfield
Michael Moorer
George Foreman

Lennox Lewis had been there since the Bowe/Holyfield fights. Bowe had won the undisputed Title from Holyfield(WBA, WBC, IBF), but basically was scared to fight Lennox, and when WBC said Lennox was the mandatory challenger, Bowe threw the WBC Title in the trash rather than fight Lennox.

Lennox ultimately proved to be the best of them, but his recognition was a long time in coming as he kept fighting the best opponents available to him, and some top guys just wouldn't step in there with him.
I knew the WBO had only recently became big but I didn't know it was actually during my lifetime, I though maybe 70s or so.