Round 12: Working together for the good of boxing

By Mauricio Sulaimán – son of José Sulaimán – President of the WBC

A historic meeting took place, During the mon th of January, in which the most important promoters in the world met for an informal talk that was highly positive, and for which I am infinitely grateful for the trust from all of them, to serve as facilitator of said meeting that was held at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas.

Bob Arum and Carl Moretti of Top Rank; Tom Brown, TGB; Luis de Cubas, from PBC; Fernando Beltrán, from Zanfer; Eddie Hearn of Matchroom; Salvatore and Christian Cherchi, of Opi2000, and Tom Loeffler, of 360 Promotions, were present, while others, due to health or scheduling reasons, were unable to attend.

The main theme unanimously accepted, is the unity and respect that must exist between all members of the boxing industry; working together to make the fights that the fans wants to see happen, and leaving behind individual egos and pretensions. As Don King has always said “ Working together works “. By the way, Don was confirmed to attend , however medical issues have prevented him from flying for some time now. However he keeps on working and is active.

With great pleasure we have already seen the result of these discussions as there have been fights with boxers from different companies on the same card. I am sure that 2024 will be equal or bigger than the historic year 2023.

Oaxaca welcomed the world of boxing, in what was an event to remember, and leaves this beautiful Mexican state on the map of this sport. The Guelaguetza auditorium looked majestic before a full house, with the participation of the British company Matchroom, Eddie Hearn and all his team present,  Mexican promoter  Bxstrs, and the support that Zanfer provided by lending its boxer, the Oaxacan idol,  Oscar Chirino so that he could fight before his people.

The Governor, Salomón Jara Cruz, formed a great team led by the sports director, Arturo de Jesús Chávez, better known as Tocho, so that this became a true success.

There were motivational talks by Mariana La Barby Juárez and Jackie Nava, Humberto Chiquita González and Pipino Cuevas. Also talks for prevention of  addictions, by Rocky Heron, and the former champion José Luis Maestrito López; against harassment and bullying by Beka Romero, as well as massive fitness boxing classes, with instructor Rosy Olvera.

A unique exhibition of the WBC museum in the Municipal Palace was showed and will remain for one month, visits to Monte Albán and other archeological landscapes , and several activations that made the entire community feel part of the event, which culminated with a world-class boxing card, and of course  supported by an amateur boxing tournament to give new values an opportunity.

After returning fromThailand and enjoying the Super Bowl I flew to Rome where I had unbelievable positive acomplishments which I will share sometime soon . I met Salvatore Cherchi and other WBC friends like Mauro Betti, Referee Massimo Barrovecchio , Albanian commissioner Orial Kolaj …. Italian promoter Alessandra Branco visited me with our proud WBC silver champion Michael Magnesi as they are excited about the upcoming defense on march 22.

Sandor Martin , the WBC lightweight mandatory contender flew from Spain to meet with me and discuss his future. Martin is an outstanding boxer with 44 fights only 2 loses, a former WBC Youth champion , former EBU champion and he who defeated Mikey garcia a couple of years ago and who dropped Teofimo Lopez twice losing a controversial split decision.

After an unforgettable stop in Rome, I arrived in London for a series of very successful meetings. I met with Frank and George Warren, from the Queensberry company, the most important in England and one of the strongest in the world.

I also visited the Repton Gym, founded in 1894, and exclusively for amateurs, to have a meeting with a Lot of children and young people, their families, and those unsung heroes the trainers and coaches who dedicate their lives to teaching and training to keep youth off the streets. Geraldine Davies, our public relations director in England, David Walker and Scott Welch, who run the WBC Cares program, Adrian Pallarols, and my brother Héctor spent a wonderful morning in the company of Michael Watson, that boxer who was on the verge of death, and now He is a social responsibility ambassador for the WBC.

I had a great meeting with Ash Habib, the creator of the Undisputed video game, the first boxing game in 13 years, which is a worldwide success, and a very important announcement will be made soon.

I enjoyed the traditional WBC Walk, in the famous Hyde Park, and to close the day I had a meeting with Karl Fowler, president of the large format book publishing house Opus, to finalize details of the launch of WBC Opus; a true highlight of my trip was meeting with one from my great friends, the legendary champion Naseem Hamed. We talked about our parents, he was so vocal on how he loved conquering the green and gold and how that was the greatest achievement as he had that dream since childhood, laughed and cried and share a wonderful afternoon.

Being in London, and thanks to technology, I was able to enjoy three great boxing promotions: the already mentioned Campeones de la Guelaguetza, from Oaxaca, Mexico, on the DAZN platform. The defense of the WBC super featherweight championship, by O’shaquie Foster against Abraham Nova, in a great split decision fight from NY, on the ESPN+ platform, and from Florida, WBC Latin championship fight between Israel Picazo and Ramón Cárdenas, on ProBox Tv.

I have already returned to my beloved Mexico, as there is a lot of work ahead.

The Mexican Alexandro Santiago will fight this weekend in Japan, in which he will defend his WBC bantamweight title against the very tough challenger, former champion Junto Nakatani.

Did you know…?

Mexico is second in number of world boxing champions. The US is positioned in first place, and behind Mexico are others such as England, Japan, Puerto Rico, Panama, and Thailand.

Today’s anecdote

In that December of 1975, my mother,  Martha, accompanied my father to the Convention in Tunisia,  when Don José was elected President of the WBC. On the way back, they stopped one night in London to take the flight home. Very happy with the honor of having being elected president of the wbc, he invited my mother to dinner to celebrate in a special fancy restaurant.

My dad said to the waiter: “Bring me the biggest lobster you have.” And my mother asked that they bring her, the daughter of said lobster, among jokes…

The waiter returns, and with a little shame, whispered in Don José’s ear that the lobster is 12 pounds, and my dad confirmed his order immediately… “ Martha, can you believe this? This guy comes, and he tells me the lobster is 12 pounds: What a shame! Don’t you think? They had never told me the price of a dish.” A while later two waiters showed up, carrying a large tray containing a gigantic lobster. Turns out the waiter told him about the 12 pound weight, and not the cost as my dad understood! My parents’ laughter could be heard throughout the restaurant.

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