We are entering the final stretch of the great event that will culminate in the fight of the best boxer in the world today: Saúl Canelo Álvarez, who returns home after 12 years of glorifying Mexico in the world’s rings.
This coming May 6, the world’s attention will be focused upon Jalisco, as Zapopan and Guadalajara will be united to receive the fans that will come from all over the country and from other countries with a full house is forecast, at the Akron Stadium, in the Chivas.
A lot of surprises are being prepared to make this a marvelously memorable national holiday. Thirty years ago, Julio César Chávez filled the Azteca. Now it’s up to Canelo to consecrate himself before his people.
I enjoyed the visit of Jill Diamond, director of WBC Cares, in Mexico City.
We are following up on the important issues that were given as an Action Plan, during our last Convention to strengthen the women’s boxing program with specific actions, among which are:
• Celebration of the fourth annual women’s boxing Convention.
• Creation of the manual, carried out by an agency specializing in social networks and marketing, to be distributed free of charge to women boxers to increase their media and market value.
• to include at least one women’s fight on each of the cards, where there are WBC world title contests.
• Continue with the medical studies for the revision of the specific rules of women’s boxing, to guarantee their physical integrity.
Did you know…?
Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time, visited Ciudad Valles in 1982, when my father, José Sulaimán, took him to see where he grew up, and all the beauty of the Huasteca Potosina.
Ali walked the streets and people couldn’t believe he was there.
He was kind and affable as always, and he enjoyed a few days embraced by the hospitality of my family in Valles, led by my uncle Toño, who treated him like one of the family.
It was in 1980 when my hero, Sugar Ray Leonard, lost to Roberto Durán. After the rematch was confirmed, I begged my dad to take me to it.
“No way, mijito”, he told me. “New Orleans is a very big and dangerous city, and I am going to be very busy, and you are only 10 years old; im sorry.”
And so he went without me to the fight.
The next day, my uncle Toño Esper came home, and he asked why I was so sad.
Immediately afterwards I found myself on a plane, next to him, on the way to New Orleans.
Upon landing, he gave me 50 dollars, which at that time was a fortune, and that’s how I was present at the famous “ NO MAS “ rematch between my two idols.