By Mauricio Sulaimán – WBC President – Son of José Sulaimán
Last weekend, the executive committee of the North American Boxing Federation (NABF) met in Houston, Texas, to celebrate Duane Ford, who decided to step down from the presidency of the organization, paving the way for a historic event. Joanna Aguilar, from New Mexico, USA, was elected president of the NABF, becoming the first woman to lead this organization, which was founded 57 years ago, in 1968.
It was a very emotional meeting in which memories flooded back to everyone who took the microphone, but who is Duane Ford?
He began with a very short career as an amateur boxer and eventually made it to boxing matches. On his own initiative, he began scoring on a paper bag, without having the slightest idea of what he was doing. A judge saw him and appointed him to the Nevada Boxing Commission, thus beginning his life in this incredible sport.
Duane Ford became commissioner of Nevada and presided over the commission during the golden age of boxing, during the time of the four kings (Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, and Durán). He has been a member of the World Boxing Council’s Board of Governors, a judge with over 300 world title fights, and finally, president of the NABF until last Saturday.
Meanwhile, the WBC appointed Duane as vice president for life.
He was a great boxing commissioner and as chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission actively participated in the process of important changes that the WBC implemented in the rules that have changed our sport in many ways, most importantly in the protection of fighters health and life after boxing.
During those years, the famous Muhammad Ali Act did not exist. It was created when a handful of American politicians used boxing as a means to generate massive publicity for their campaigns and won their respective elections. They then abandoned our sport. This law created a terrible divide between boxing organizations and the US boxing community.
The law prohibits commissioners from that country from belonging to any organization, and that’s how great commissioners like Duane Ford and Dickie Cole had to decide between becoming commissioner of their state or of the NABF or the WBC.
To this day, no commissioner can participate in the organization, and a terrible distance has been created. The organizations are generally seen as strangers and even enemies by young commissioners, who are not really to blame, since that’s how they came to boxing when all this was already a reality. Not having commissioners in international organizations has created a great rift and, therefore, has complicated important changes that the WBC has implemented in the rest of the world.
For example, the use of instant replay, which the WBC introduced more than 15 years ago and which many US commissions still do not have as a rule.
Nevada has been using it for several years with great results, but it has been a titanic and frustrating task in each jurisdiction. Other innovative rules that the US fails to accept leave our sport failing to advance the much-needed fairness and transparency it needs. For example, open scoring, that is, the announcement of the judges’ official scores after the fourth and eighth rounds, thus giving corners nad boxers the opportunity to adjust their strategy and fight plan by knowing what the judges are scoring.
Boxing is the only sport in which the athlete doesn’t know the score and essentially fights blindly.
How many times have we heard: “I thought I was winning, otherwise I would have pressured and tried to win the later rounds.” In short, we continue to make progress on many initiatives that will eventually be accepted in the US and England.
The NABF has an action plan for the rest of the year, as specific objectives were outlined at this meeting:
Strengthen the women’s boxing program. Therefore, a new committee was appointed under the direction of Michel Hemlin (Canada); Paulina Brindis (Mexico); and Deborah Hawkins (US). Barry Lindeman was confirmed as Secretary General of the Ring Officials Committee to coordinate the training and certification programs for judges and referees, continue the development of the remote judging program, oversee the work of the new Enhanced Scoring System, Instant Replay, Open Scoring, performance evaluation, and a host of related topics.
Social responsibility activities in which all members are invited to participate in WBC Cares programs, led by Jill Diamond, Christiane Manzur, and the General Committee.
DID YOU KNOW?
The NABF Championship is one of the most important in the world, as legendary world champions Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Erik Morales, Saúl Canelo Álvarez, and many others were NABF champions and later achieved world glory.
TODAY’S ANECDOTE
My father, José Sulaimán, was once president of the NABF; it was his final step toward being elected WBC President. The NABF always held a very special place in his heart. Days after my graduation with a degree in Business Administration from the TEC de Monterrey, in May 1994, Don José took me to an NABF convention.
“My son, come with me to Houston. I want you to see the unity and the great work being done in this federation, which belongs to the WBC and where we have close friends.”
Sam Macías was the president at the time, and during a session, he nominated me as vice president of Mexico, and that’s how I began my journey in the world of boxing, a position I hold with great honor and commitment to this day.
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