We remember Don Jose Sulaiman

Today we remember with affection and respect Don Jose Sulaiman, nine years after his passing.

Born in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, he went on to become boxing’s brightest innovator and one of the most important commissioners in the history of the sport.
Don Jose spent part of his childhood and youth in Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. He became a keen and talented athlete, with firm inclinations towards boxing and baseball.
He stood out in boxing even as a child, and later he would hold all the existing jobs of promoter, commissioner, referee, judge and administrator, settling in Mexico City, spending the rest of his long, wondeful and fruitful life in the Capitol.

Don Jose was appointed the Executive Secretary of the World Boxing Council, and then became President.
He worked tirelessly for almost four decades, always serving with total dedication, creating, and shaping monumental and historic changes of enormous significance in medicine, while constantly improving the rules, by insuring they became more humane for the most important folk…the boxers themselves.

These tremendous, monumental developments and improvements are by far the best and the most significant in history and this is recognized worldwide.
As the Father of Modern Boxing, Don Jose left us a fantastic legacy for his beloved World Boxing Council. The most important of the boxing organizations, with 166 and now 170 affiliated countries, magnificent champions in all divisions, plus records and statistics that in other times and other eras were unthinkable and unattainable.

Don Jose gave boxing a fresh new face, taking it from a show blemished and tarnished spectacle with extreme violence and danger, to what it is today, with properly matched fights, governed by vigilant and caring rules which take care at all times of those who have the tenacity and courage to climb up into the ring.

Even though boxing continues to hold and contain risks, as do all contact sports, these cannot be compared to the stark, staggering, and rudimentary conditions which prevailed in the past.
Don Jose will forever be remembered for his knowledge, wisdom, spirit, dedication, determination, kindness, love, loyalty and laughter which uniquely characterized him making him AN ALL TIME GREAT. As always on this day, tears fall, but smile and joy dry them.

All those who knew Don Jose Sulaiman Chagnon, so cherish the meaningful and heartfelt title he bestowed for loyalty, hard work and trustworthy consistency: The greatest accolade he bestowed was the simple but so cherished greeting: “My Good Friend.”