WBC Notes From 47th Annual Boxing Convention

The Tuesday morning general assembly meeting at the WBC’s 47th annual convention saw the announcement of two major new projects of the WBC.

One was two new webpages created by WBC President Dr. José Sulaimán and the other was the creation of a series of amateur and four and six-round professional boxing tournaments.

Webmaster Gianni Armetta of Milan, Italy, gave a sensational presentation of the new webpages that showed the extremely high quality of the video and including clips of the recent Giacobbe Fragomeni-Krzystof Wlodarczyk WBC cruiserweight world championship fight.

President Sulaiman said, “The WBC made it official today. Wbcboxing.tv is going to be one greatest things ever thought about, especially for all the promoters and all boxers of the world that have very few opportunities for the public.

“The internet is one of the unquestionable places for action the future, and I believe that the future is unlimited. Gianny gave an amazing presentation. We’ve been working on this for five years. The main importance of these webpages is that they’re not going against the established televisions networks of the world. They’re only going to the promoters and the boxers that currently have no opportunities. This is a new door that is open for them.

“Wbcboxing.tv will be exclusively for boxing – live boxing, on-demand, and any other boxing programs. Suljos.tv will be for all other sports and entertainment. We are in the process of being able to show these on mobile phones – we are talking to the owners ot the mobile systems.

“I believe that this is a time of transition. The great boxers of the last decade have gone or will be gone in this coming year. We desperately need new heroes, new idols, because boxing without idols is not interesting. The amateur tournament will be to bring new idols from the 90 percent of independent amateur boxers in the world.

“We are not intervening with AIBA [International Amateur Boxing Federation], we are not intervening with federated boxing. We are just going to the 90 percent of the free boxers of the world that are in the hands of professional trainers. All those will be without offending anybody.

“We will try to be friendly with AIBA, but if they want war, they will have it. And everybody knows that the WBC is a warrior, and we have been offended. But still, this is not a project against anybody. This is a project for the good of boxing.

“The internet is offered to all of the promoters of the world. The amateur tournaments and four to six-round tournaments is for all the WBC promoters of the world, the professional promoters, the professional trainers. Could the new tournaments be shown on our internet networks? Why not? Yes, they could go together.”

Part of the morning general assembly meeting and all of the afternoon session were devoted to ratings, which will be published soon.

Promoters in attendance included: Salvatore Cherchi (OPI 2000) of Italy; Akihiko Honda (Teiken Promotions) and Joe Koizumi (matchmaker) of Japan; Bobby Goodman (Square Ring Promotions), Gary Shaw (Gary Shaw Productions), Art Pelullo (Banner Promotions), Tom Loeffler (K2 Promotions), Alex Camponova (Thompson Promotions), and Ron Rizzo (DiBella Entertainment) of the United States; Yvon Michel (GYM) of Canada; Dietmar Poszwa (Universum) and Malte Muller (Arena-Box Promotion) of Germany; Pepe Gomez (Cancun Box Promotions) and Hector Garcia of Mexico; Philippe Fondu (Hatton Promotions) of England; Liu Gang (Zovi Promotions) of China; Andrew Wasilewski (Bullit Knockout Promotions) of Poland; Virat Vachirarattanawonge (Petchyindee Promotions), Naris Singwancha, Kokiet Panichayarom and Eddie Toomkit (Kokiet Group), and Scott Mallon (Top Rated Promotions) of Thailand; Bebot Elorde of the Philippines; Alexander A. Krassyuk (K2 East) and Roman Valesyuk (Elite Promotions) of Ukraine; and Bernard Roose (R2 Image and Events) of Switzerland.

Also at the Tuesday meeting, Claude Jackson of the North American Boxing Federation was confirmed as a new WBC International Secretary.

The very sad news was announced that long-time WBC ring official Lou Filippo had passed away in Los Angeles. President Sulaiman asked for a moment of silence and tolled a 10 count in his honor. An inductee in the World Boxing Hall of Fame as a ring official, Lou was 83 years old.

WBC Ring Officials Board Chairman Hubert Minn of the United States led the seminar for judges on Tuesday morning. The afternoon seminar for referees was led by WBC Ring Officials Board Secretary Bruce McTavish of the Philippines.

WBC welterweight world champion Andre Berto and number three-ranked super middleweight contender and Super Six World Boxing Classic participant Andre Dirrell, both of the United States, were also in attendance at the morning general assembly meeting. They accompanied WBC Cares Chairperson Jill Diamond on a WBC Cares visit during the afternoon.

Jill said, “Today, 25 WBC Cares Goodwill Ambassadors and two super heroes, Andre Berto and Andre Dirrell, visited the Jeju Orphanage. The facility houses 110 children ranging in age from infants through high school, and one 11 year-old dog who watched us carefully, but from a distance. To credit the orphanage, you would not have known their circumstances were unhappy.

“These children responded to our hugs with giggles and affection. Thanks to the Reyes family, Stephen Blea, Lena Van de Wiele, and the WBC, we brought them little gifts and wristbands. And thanks to our two Andres, we brought them laughter and a demonstartion in how to throw the perfect punch. In return, the children delighted in showing us their Karate kicks. It was a very gratifying afternoon.”