Just a few days ago we celebrated the 59th WBC Convention, and we also want to remember the annual meeting held in 2013, which was the first that Don José Sulaimán could not attend.
However, from the Los Angeles hospital where he was being treated, he wrote what a Convention meant to him:
Each year the WBC celebrates its Convention in different parts of the world. In these meetings, our great international unity grows, and friendship and boxing commitments strengthen. It’s funny to see how these encounters are, in a sense, like a boxing match. During the working sessions, everyone assumes their position and defend their points of view but at the end of each meeting, the gestures of friendship and unity immediately take over.
The Convention is a meeting where all its members express their problems and go in search of the right solutions in benefit of the world of boxing. It’s an opportunity for all promoters in the world to attend and express what they wish for their promotional companies and the boxers they represent.
The work sessions with the promoters to review the ratings and mandatory fights are the most controversial. These are public sessions in which any person may request to intervene and speak in the open floor, and on some occasions, there are disagreements and confrontations that rise almost to the point of fistfights!
It’s a meeting where the position of each boxer in the ratings is carefully and profoundly reviewed. The WBC has a great record of fights with which it maintains the ratings of all boxers with total care and attention. The Ratings Committee is integrated by great experts in this subject, honest people from many countries in the world dedicated to justice.
The Presidents of the committees dedicated to the several subjects in the world of boxing and the WBC, express their concerns, objectives, and responsibilities, like the Medical Team, the Ratings Team, the General Technical Control Team. It is also the most important meeting for the judges and referees, because at each Convention their training is updated by making the necessary changes.
It is during these sessions that many changes in this sport have been implemented, making it a safer and more humane, such as the reduction from 15 to 12 rounds, having the weigh-ins 24 hours prior to the fights, among other achievements.
The last Convention was very much applauded due to the number of changes that the judges offered during their workshops and all the boxing people who were pleased by them.
Vitaly Klitschko, who is now running for the Presidency of Ukraine, inaugurated the Convention together with the Prime Minister of Thailand. Also, Pope Francis was appointed Man of the Year and Floyd Mayweather as Supreme Champion.
Every country in the world deserves to celebrate the Convention, and this election is always done by voting for the countries that request it. This voting is done exactly the same way as it takes place for every agreement reached in the WBC.
This recent Convention in Thailand is the sole occasion in which this designation for next year’s event remained pending and it is our interest to bring it to America since we believe we have neglected it a little.
Though the working hours are long and productive, there is still time for leisure, and the hosts proudly share the customs and culture of their countries.
Jose Sulaiman’s absence was very evident and hard, but the unity of all the attendants, united in their prayers and good wishes towards him, generated also an unique ambiance of solidarity and unity. Everybody worked very hard hoping that Jose Sulaiman, would be proud that his WBC remained as strong as ever and with the commitment to comply with him. The Convention closed with a unique proclamation: Jose Sulaiman was appointed as WBC LIFETIME PRESIDENT by acclamation.
test