45TH WBC CONVENTION KICKS OFF IN PHILLIPINES
Posted on | November 15, 2007 | 2 Comments
WORLD BOXING COUNCIL NEWS
November 12, 2007 – Manila , Philippines .
The World Boxing Council’s 45th annual convention officially opened this morning at the Manila Hotel.
The opening ceremony was a great success and included the attendance of Philippines President Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. WBC President Jose Sulaiman described her as, “Intelligent, mature, and well-known for her relentless leadership against poverty. She is a great leader for human equality and all women in the world, as well.”
President Sulaiman presented President Macapagal with a green and gold WBC world championship belt, a tribute that has been given to great leaders in the past such as United States President Ronald Reagan, Argentinian President Carlos Menem, South African President Nelson Mandela, and Pope John Paul II.
WBC International super featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao gave a welcoming speech to the assembly, and later met and took photographs with his fans and admirers.
WBC Emeritus heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko addressed the assembly and told a story about how he watched his first professional title fight on television at the age of 14: Mike Tyson winning the WBC heavyweight world title against Trevor Berbick. Vitali said that he was so impressed and motivated by the fight that he told his friends that he would one day become WBC heavyweight champion and hold the green belt, to which his friends responded by laughing and telling him that he was dreaming. 20 years later, Vitali said he called those same friends for a lunch meeting in Kiev , Ukraine , and when he arrived, he put his WBC world championship green belt on the table. He said they all laughed again and hugged each other.
Also present were former WBC world champions Jeff Fenech, Oscar Larios, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, Veeraphol Nakhonluang, John Stracey, Gerry Peñalosa, and Rolando Navarrete.
Representatives for many major promoters were in attendance, as well.
The opening day ceremony included the presentation of the WBC Board of Governors, African sports dignitaries Mr. Kashiba and Mr. Ganga, all the WBC Committee Chairmen, WBC members, and other attendants who totalled over 780 persons.
The ring officials seminar and certification program was held in the afternoon with a record attendance of 135 ring officials. The seminar for judges included an evaluation of 12 rounds of different boxing scenarios, and a thorough discussion of ideas and opinions about such actions.
All promoters and managers in attendance had the opportunity to address the ratings committee regarding their fighters. Ratings and mandatories will be discussed in the general assembly meeting on Wednesday.
President Sulaiman gave his annual report and set the goals for his next year as president, which included the following topics:
· Ratification of the announcement of the judges’ scores after the fourth and eighth round of world championship fights.
· Participation with the government of the Philippines for medical and technical support.
· The concern regarding how the biggest television networks currently support only a few boxers and promoters, leaving out the rest.
· The recognition of the importance of the smaller television networks that support many boxers and promoters around the world, without whose support boxing would die. President Sulaiman also said that while the biggest networks televise and profit from boxing’s cream, they do not produce the milk, which is a process that the WBC supports through its Continental Federations.
· Deep concern for the very low professional level in the corners of boxers. A world school of trainers with courses held around the world will address medical, technical, tactical and other types of physical and mental issues.
· The implementation of instant replay to review only specific actions like headbutts, low blows, punches landed after the bell, among others.
· Another priority of the WBC will be the absolute agreement between the affiliated national boxing federations and commissions to work together to stop the participation of any boxer that does not have the official medical approval of his commission of residence. This will stop mismatches, substitution of identities, performance of suspended boxers, and the piracy of boxers.
· The NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL have their own boxing networks. Why not boxing ? This would give more opportunities to promoters and boxers who are not supported by the biggest networks and our beloved sport will flourish.
· That the present heroes of boxing will be gone by 2010, and the WBC is encouraging all boxing federations of the world to promote undercard tournaments for the developement of the new era of boxing to find the next generation of heroes for the second decade of the 21st century.
President Sulaiman closed his speech by saying, “The WBC is not a one-person organization, but an important number of great boxing citizens of the world without whose efforts the WBC could not be the most respected and credible organization in the world today. I am not the President, but the servant of boxing and the WBC.”
He also expressed his profound gratitude to the Governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Felix Gonzalez Canto, for his important leadership in hosting the Second World Boxing Medical Congress in Cancun in April, which was a tremendous success with the particpation of 300 boxing doctors from 89 countries of the world.
The convention’s opening night gala dinner will be held in Manila ’s historic Intramuros district.
The official WBC Manila Convention magazine can be downloaded in .pdf format at: wbcboxing.com – then go to “downloads.”
Convention photographs of WBC President Jose Sulaiman and Philippines President Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and Manny Pacquiao by Notifight.com.