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
AWA World Heavyweight Championship (Boston version) AWA World Heavyweight Championship (Boston version) The AWA World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling championship promoted by Paul Bowser in Boston. The title was created by Bowser after Gus Sonnenberg, who had beaten Ed Lewis for the original World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in 1929, was stripped of the title by the National Boxing Association. Browser continued to recognize Sonnenberg as champion and named his championship after the "American Wrestling Association" governing body, which hitherto did not actually exist. Rival promoters, including Jack Curley, countered by forming the National Wrestling Association and its NWA World Heavyweight Championship. During Don Eagle's