which Undisputed champion had the most challenging road to unificaiton?

[Erratic415]

When did the WBO become important? It seemed like it went from being a title only Europeans fought for to being up there with the big 3 over night. Even when it became needed to be undisputed it didn't felt like it took time for people to get on board.

I would like to see how people compare the first 7 undisputed in the 2 belt era, 3 belt era and the 4 belt era

I thought about that too. I’m not really sure.

I remember it wasn’t a big thing in the 90s, at least in the US. Tommy Morrison fought Ray Mercer for the WBO belt in 91’, and George Foreman fought Tommy Morrison for it in 93’, a year and half before he beat Michael Moorer. Morrison ended up winning against Foreman, but I don’t remember it being really acknowledged as a true title fight among most fans.

It seems that it was more a European thing, and I think Marco Antonio Barrera may have added some credibility to it. For awhile, he defended his WBO belt, and wouldn’t even pay sanctioning fees for the WBC belt. But he was one of the top fighters p4p in the world despite not having one of the big 3 belts until a long time into his career.

It seemed to be that sometime among the mid 00s, the WBO got recognized more widely and turned into a Big 4 instead of a Big 3.