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World Boxing Council News:
WBC World Cup Tournament
WBC President Jose Sulaiman opened the Wednesday morning
assembly meeting of the WBC’s 49th annual convention with a
discussion of the upcoming WBC World Cup tournament. He
said, “This tournament will be for 40 weeks. We already have
a verbal agreement with a television company in the United
States, and the committee is closing with other television
networks around the world. It’s going to be fantastic!
“We are going to have all of the champions of every
Continental Federation meet each other, plus the WBC Silver
champions and the WBC International champions. We intend to
have the first fight for say, $40,000 for the winner and
$20,000 for the loser – it’s just an example. The winner
goes to the next round and then he will 50 and the loser 25,
the winner will go on to make 60 and the loser 30. The final
champion will make 250 or more. So it’s very, very
interesting. We are offering this also to other promoters.
It will be very good for boxers, promoters, and boxing. I
believe that this is one of the greatest programs that the
WBC has had in its 50 years. It is the opening to the world
with authentic champions of the Continental Federations
affiliated with the WBC.
“The television is trying to select five or seven cities of
the world only, in order that they can really have the
quality according to their specifications. It’s very
interesting to me because the promoters of the fighters will
have participation in the tournament.
“The tournament will start in the month of May, 2012. It
will be for 40 weeks, and we plan to have a final world
championship during the week of the 50th anniversary of the
WBC. So it’s a matter of all the promoters to talk with the
presidents of the federations so that you are sure the
boxers – every champion of the NABF, every champion of the
South American Federation, of Asia, Europe, Africa, Great
Britain – will participate.
“We will have eight divisions – flyweight, bantamweight,
featherweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, and
heavyweight, and we have one for you to decide, between
super fly, super bantam, super feather, super light, super
middle. Which do you believe have more fighters and more
attractions of the supers? For the developing countries,
they might like the smaller fighters, like super flys or
super bantams. Other countries might like heavier fighters,
like super middles. Which division would you like to be
included?”
“This is going to be sensational, because they are offering
around 15 to 16 million dollars for the program. So, the
first fights we have to take a little bit of money so we can
add after every fight that we present in the future. It’s
very interesting for the promoters and the champions for the
opportunity.
“The intention is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
WBC with this tournament. If this tournament is successful,
we are trying to have a four-year contract with the
televisions that are going to handle this World Cup.
“I believe that this is an opportunity to show the world
that every Continental Federation has a champion in most of
the divisions. This will be an authenic, true confrontation
between the champions in the World Cup of the 164 countries
affiliated with the WBC. We will be in constant
communication with all of the promoters and with all the
commissions, obviously, to present a very, very good
tournament.
“We have already advised the Continental Federations that if
they do not have a champion in a division, a vacant title,
that they can select the boxer that they believe best
represents the Federation in that vacant division. I hope
you see with enthusiasm this new program of the WBC.”
The promoters in attendance voted to include super
lightweight as the eighth weight division. Luxury watchmaker
Hublot has agreed to donate a watch to the World Cup
champions.
In his opening day speech, President Sulaiman said that the
income from the World Cup would fund his proposed pension
plan for retired boxers, and he also asked promoters
affiliated with the WBC to donate one dollar for every
ticket sold at their events to add to the pension fund.
Promoter Sampson Lewkowicz, who is presenting the fight card
that will end this convention on Friday night, pledged to
donate one dollar from each ticket sold for the event.
Mauro Gazcon of the World Cup committee included additional
information in a press release: “The global tournament will
be the biggest boxing event of all time with 40 world class
boxing events, starting May 2012 and featuring 96 boxing
champions from 10 Continental Federations across 164
countries in eight weight categories. Never before has there
been a boxing event of this magnitude. This unprecedented
boxing platform will have a global exposure that will help
the promotion of the sport of boxing and its current and
future world champions.”
President Sulaiman also proposed pensions for Gerald
McClellan and Iran Barkley, both of which were approved by
the Board of Governors. President Sulaiman added, “We
usually do not say the names of the fighters who receive
monthly pensions from the WBC because we don’t want to
embarrass them.”
Regarding wbcboxing.tv and suljos.tv, President Sulaiman
said, “I wanted to leave something as President. I have been
working on this for seven years on the internet.
Wbcboxing.tv and suljos.tv have been showing fights for 18
months. I believe that television is not the future, but we
don’t want to fight television. We want to be an addition to
television. Today, there is no fight that can be done
without an extra income. Many of the promoters receive very
little from television, but television is the opportunity of
selling sponsorships, and nobody wants to pay sponsorships
if they don’t know if it’s going to be shown in the houses
where they see boxing.
“After seven years, we have become the only site on the
internet in the world that can produce in high definition,
without interruptions, a boxing match. We have been
transmitting boxing matches for 18 months, every Saturday.
It’s excellent! You can even see it better than television
many times. We want to show you some charts - in regards to
television, the line is not going up, it is going down,
cable TV is going down. The internet is going up. So
television, to us, does not look to be the future.
“This is to show you that wbcboxing.tv and suljos.tv is for
every promoter. What we want to do is have the WBC offering
the promoters the opportunity to use the internet when they
don’t have a television contract. The key here is that the
quality of live events on the internet is as high as it can
be. We know that champions of the world only fight once or
twice in a year. Why? Because they don’t have television –
no television, no fights, no opportunities. We can do this
in a partnership with the promoters and the WBC, in which
the promoters can sell their own sponsorships. This is
giving you the internet, not only the live gate, waiting in
line for television. This is, I think, a great opportunity.
“We have been showing this or one and a half years without
charging one penny to anybody. It has been free, and it can
continue to be free if we get the sponsors, which is very
easy. We have now about 90,000 visits every month. In the
past, we didn’t have as many visitors. I don’t understand
exactly this report that was done, but it means that those
90,000 visits are two million users. So this is an
opportunity I am giving to you. This has been, as of today,
a joint venture of the WBC and myself for seven years to
bring it to this point. I just wanted you to know, all the
promoters in the world, you have this available to you. You
can sell sponsorhips and have that income now. In the
future, when the internet is firmly established, you can
even charge one, two, three, four, five, 10 dollars,
according to the fight.”
The referees seminar on Tuesday was led by Ring Officials
Board Chairman Hubert Minn of the U.S. and Co-Chairman Bruce
McTavish of the Philippines. Mr. Minn said, “Yesterday at
the referees seminar, we had 200 in attendance. We started
off with a lot of technical difficulties, but what we did
was, we had one segment where I got together nine of the top
referees in the world, three of them from Las Vegas, and
each one had to review a round in which they had some
problems – for Kenny Bayless, the Pacquiao-Mosley fight. And
what they did was, they showed their character and
intregrity by admitting that they made a mistake and what
they learned from it. Then they shared it with the group and
answered questions. And to me, you’re not going to improve
unless first you admit you made an error. The crowd was just
amazed. They said, ‘You know what? We’ve never seen things
like this before.’
“My idea of a good seminar is to be as inclusive as possible
– I want promoters, I want boxers, I want people talking to
us and sharing. The whole goal is that we can become better
officials. We’re pushing this one team – get it right. We
all work as a team, and I think it’s beginning to show up in
our assignments as well as our scoring and safety. We also
gave out a token of appreciation for loyalty to the ring
officials who have been with the WBC for over 20 years for
loyalty, honor, performance. That was a highlight for me. We
have a judges seminar today, and we’re expecting 250 to
attend.”
SPAR Scientific Chairman Dr. Gerald Finerman of UCLA gave a
speech and video presentation on concussive brain injury and
recovery. After his presentation, Dr. Finerman said,
“Starting in 1983, the WBC donated approximately one million
dollars over about 10 years to our research program. It was
the ‘seed money’ for our program, which has now become one
of the top five brain research centers in the U.S. – it’s
the Head Trauma Center at UCLA. When you do research, and
you’re seeking to get support from the government, you write
a grant, you tell them what you’ve done. You can’t just say,
‘I’m thinking about doing this.’ You have to say, ‘I’ve done
this, I’ve published these articles, we’re capable of doing
this work.’ Then you compete against a number or other
people or institutions who want that support. It’s now a
National Institute of Health program, funded by the Federal
Government. I thank Jose and the WBC for making all of this
possible.”
President Sulaiman added, “All of this came from a
conversation we had 30 years ago. I’m very proud of the WBC
for participating in starting a program that is now in the
hands of the federal government of the United States. Thank
you, Dr. Finerman. Thank you so much.”
The WBC presented Dewey Bozella an award for overcoming
injustice.
Tuesday afternoon was devoted to ratings, which will be
available soon.
WBC Cares Chairperson Jill Diamond reported, “Today, the WBC
World Boxing Cares visited the children at SHERO and the Las
Vegas Boys and Girls Club. Many of our greatest champions
gave their time and their hearts to these children. At least
20 attended, including Ray Leonard, Larry Holmes, Juan
LaPorte, Christy Martin, Tommy Hearns, Naomi Togashi, Momo
Koseki, Jose Napoles, Salvador Sanchez II, Julian Jackson,
Manuel Medina, Hector Camacho, Milton McCrory, Iran Barkley,
Mariana Juarez, Jhonny Gonzalez, “Comanche Boy” George
Tahdooahnippah, Chauncey Welliver, Joe Hipp, Francois Botha,
Naoko Fujioka, and ring officials Kenny Bayless, who was our
guiding light for this trip, Sparkle Lee, Stephen Blea, and
Jay Nady.
“In addition to the excitement that we brought to them, they
put on a sparring demonstration that their coach, Richard
Steel, put together for us. Kenny Bayless was the referee.
The children cheered for the red and blue corners but in
these short fights, everyone came out a winner. It was an
emotional and gratifying afternoon, and we hope we gave the
children as much as they gave us.
“WBC Cares couldn’t have done this this without the support
of its members, the cars donated by Jay and Kenny, help by
Deborah Hawkins, and the extra love given yesterday by
Raylene Carbone, Marcie Morrow, Elizabeth Reyes, Monique
Rendon, Stevie Karns, Ricardo Sequeira, Alma, Pepe, Alain
Flores, Veronica Medal, and all of our members who make this
possible. We also gave out awards to SHERO founder Eileen
Oser, and Jim Richards, who helps the Boys and Girls Club,
for their dedication and support of young people. Oh yes,
and there was cake!”
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