Chris Eubank recognisable celebrities of the period. In his final two years of boxing he challenged then-up and coming contender Joe Calzaghe in a bid to reclaim his WBO super-middleweight title, with a victorious Calzaghe later claiming that it was the toughest fight of his whole career. Eubank's last two fights were against WBO junior-heavyweight champion Carl Thompson, both of which were brutal encounters. In the rematch, Eubank was stopped for the first and only time in his career. Eubank is credited for his bravery in the ring, in which he was able to take considerable amounts of punishment from power punchers
World Boxing Organization champions 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 increasingly 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, all of whom