Round 12: Graduation Night

By Mauricio Sulaimán / President of the WBC / Son of José Sulaimán

Last Saturday was a wonderful day to remember.

I started it bright and early, by going to the house of my friend Luis Menéndez, who is a boxing fan like few I have seen. He created a club called La Legión, and it consists of friends, who share an abiding love for our sport, and every Saturday they get together early to train and then have breakfast.

It is wonderfully instructive to see champions training this dedicated group. That team of expert champions consists of Carlos Zárate, Isaac Pitbull Cruz, among others, but the one who is always present is César Bazán. I attended with my son Mauricio, and José Luis Bueno accompanied us to spend a morning full of boxing, friends, fun, work, anecdotes and laughter.

Later I had a meeting with my dear Pepe Gómez, a boxing promoter from Cancun, and he told me about his plans and, we are contemplating holding the 2022 Convention in the paradisiacal site of the Riviera Maya.

Pepe, since 2005, when he met my dad, has managed to bring memorably fabulous events that have written in golden letters many pages of new chapters in the history of our beloved World Boxing Council in the epicentre of Cancun, and other destinations throughout the State Quintana Roo.

When Hurricane Wilma ravaged Cancun, my dad, José Sulaimán, decided to host the Night of Champions gala to show the world that Cancun had weathered it was still standing, rebuilding, renovating, and regenerating . Pepe Gómez was a vital part and focal reference point in achieving this celebration that lasted three days and brought together 98 world champions.

The star line-up consisted of Lennox Lewis, Ken Norton, Evander Holyfield, Floyd Mayweather , Julio César Chávez, Roberto Durán, José Mantequilla Napoles, Raúl Ratón Macías, Laila Ali, among other great champions who enjoyed the boxing show in a sold-out bull ring arena where Jorge Travieso Arce and Jackie Nava defended their WBC titles with great performances. There was also a golf tournament, a parade in convertible cars through the city, an autograph signing in Tulum, with the presence of the now state governor, Carlos Joaquín González, who was its major at the time, as well as a talent night and the great award gala for the best of boxing at Xcaret.

This magnificent state of Quintana Roo has also held the following events with the support of Pepe Gómez and Cancún Boxing:

– First and only world heavyweight championship fight in Mexico between Samuel Peter vs. Oleg Maskaev, on March 8, 2008.

– Second World Medical Congress of Boxing, in 2007.

– 48th Annual Convention of the WBC, in 2010.

– 50th Annual WBC Convention, in 2012, where Muhammad Ali was crowned The King of Boxing.

– First ever WBC Female Convention, in 2014

– 57th Annual Convention of the WBC, in 2019.

– Opening of the Oasis Arena, which has hosted major boxing events for the past 10 years.

– The co-promotion of cards, with most of the great world boxing promoter pillars Don King, Akihiko Honda, Lou DiBella, Tom Loeffler, Fernando Beltrán, Oswaldo Küchle and Art Pelullo.

In the evening I attended my daughter Valeria’s high school graduation. It was a very emotional event to see the joy and tears of those fifty-eight teenagers, who began their studies as girls, and today, are young ladies, having completed this significant stage of their lives. A generation who overcame the pandemic, having to adjust to the challenges of online study, uncertainty, confinement and return to face-to-face classes.

I take this opportunity to recognize all those who dedicate their lives to teaching. Teachers, professors, tutors, assistants, directors, in short, all those who have trained us all through the years, and who see fledgling generation after generation pass, opening their wings to fly freely, soaring in search of what destiny will bring. Seeing my daughter fulfil herself and her friends and all her families celebrating this enormous step, which we take often for granted, culminating in graduation day. Now each one will go their own way on their own individual path. Some will maintain friendships over the coming years and continue to meet, while others will never see each other again, But the memory of these wonderful years will remain alive in their minds, and above all, in their hearts. Thank you Vale, for being a dedicated persevering student, for being a dear friend to all, and for being the most wonderful daughter in the world.

While I was at my daughter’s graduation, I couldn’t help but have my cell phone discreetly placed in front of me, to watch the main fight of the show held in Phoenix, Arizona, between David “Bandera Roja” Benavidez and David Lemieux, for the interim WBC super-middleweight. Benavidez looked great and knocked out tough Canadian rival Lemieux in the third round. Red Flag was crowned the WBC interim champion and I consider that night to be his graduation ceremony. He is now a reality, and he is now placed among the lists of the best champions of today.

This young man is a true example of resilience against adversity. He conquered the world championship at the age of 19, gaining the Guinness Record as the youngest in history to hold the title of that division.

With the championship came fame and fortune, accompanied by pleasures and seductive temptations. The young man made a mistake and lost his championship by failing to follow WBC regulations, after testing positive for banned substances. For anyone it could have been the end, but not for David. He put himself in the hands of experts battling of addictions, he moved house and went far away to another state; He received psychological help and was always close to the WBC, who monitored this entire process until giving him the second chance to fight for the title, defeating brave former world champion Anthony Dirrell by knockout. The pandemic arrived and he had to defend his championship in conditions never before experienced by having to undergo “The bubble”, being isolated in a hotel for a week, unable to leave the room, only one hour to go down to the gym, which was very limited. without comprehensive boxing equipment, without being able to go running and with a diet very different from what a boxer consumes during the week of the fight, there was no steam room or sauna. David lost his title in the scale as he could not make weight.

That vacant championship was won by Saúl Canelo Álvarez, in December 2020, and he unified the division, in 2021.

Canelo submitted a request to the WBC to fight in the higher division, which was granted, and thus an interim title fight was ordered to maintain ongoing and ensuing activity in the division.

Today David Benavidez has fought back to interim triumph. A true Green and Gold pride and an example of how the love of his father and his family, and the inspiration that his infant son and his wife, gives him the motivation and the inspiration to once again strive to be WBC Absolute Monarch.

Congratulations to Sampson Lewkowicz, his promoter, who discovered him at a very young age and always believed in him, stood by David supported him in the good times but, above all, and with all the more passion in the bad times, steadfastly believing in him. Seeing is beliving and believing is everything!

Did you know…?

Speaking of graduations, it’s worth noting what the young prospect, undefeated boxer David Rey Picasso, is doing with his life. In addition to being a professional boxer, ranked in the top 10 in the world, he is studying two careers at UNAM. An example to be followed by everyone in sport, and in life in general.

Today’s anecdote

When David Benavidez won his first WBC championship, Sampson Lewkowicz arrived in Mexico to accompany champion David Benavidez and his father in the traditional Coffee Tuesday, the weekly meeting that the WBC has with the media. When they were announced, I thought they were brothers, because Don José Benavidez looks so young. When officially presenting the belt to David, we asked that his father also come to the podium. He shedding tears of emotion saying:
“I watched television and I always dreamed of helping and supporting one of my children to win that beautiful Green and Gold Belt and being able to be together with Don José Sulaimán. God took him away, but my dream has come true, and now David is again champion, and he will always represent this body with dignity and greatness.”

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