World Boxing Organization (as they did with several established champions in the lower weight divisions), the WBO sanctioned a fight between two relatively unknown fighters, Francesco Damiani (winner of the super heavyweight silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics) and Johnny DuPlooy, to determine the inaugural holder of its own heavyweight title in 1989. All other sanctioning bodies of boxing recognized the then-undefeated Mike Tyson as the undisputed heavyweight champion. Damiani, meanwhile, went on to become the first WBO heavyweight champion. At heavyweight, especially in the United States, the organization initially struggled to gain credibility as a major sanctioning body, with WBO heavyweight
World Colored Heavyweight Championship African World Championship, which would be open to boxers of African descent from any country as well as boxers of any race living in Africa. This proposal was met with worldwide criticism, and the World Boxing Council ultimately abandoned the idea. Eighteen men were recognized as World Colored Heavyweight Champion, combining for 28 total reigns. World Colored Heavyweight Championship The World Colored Heavyweight Championship was a title awarded to black boxers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was the only recognized heavyweight championship available to blacks prior to Jack Johnson winning the world heavyweight title in 1908.