The 12th Round — The Middleweight Division FACTS

By Mauricio Sulaiman
WBC President – Jose Sulaiman’s son

I wish to express my sincere deepest condolences to two very dear persons who have suffered terrible loses this past week. Tom Loeffler lost his Mother and Miguel DePablos lost his father. The boxing family is great as we all unite in difficult moments and I am certain Tom and Miguel feel the warmth from all over the world joining them in prayers and hope for prompt resignation.

I am back from a summer vacation cruise with my wife and kids. For the first time ever I turned off my phone and didn’t open my email in 7 days. The greatest time! I had forgotten how to live the moment and cherish what is happening NOW.

Then came reality, open my laptop and Boom there I found endless emails of all sorts. One can easily put in perspective the role that at times I have to play as President of the WBC. One email simply read… “Since you have not responded we have no other alternative but to take you to court“ !!!!!! I couldn’t believe it!

Then came other news regarding the Middleweight division. Highly uncomfortable and uncalled for. But that is reality, we are facing times in which anarchy is threatening the structures, rule and order is questioned and abuse of power is the day to day.

I looked for a WBC press release which was published on December 14 2015. It was published and it is clear as water and I believe it is important to reprint it just as it was published as it contains the real facts without any room for interpretation as this was the official statement from the WBC when everybody was demanding the announcement of Alvarez vs Golovkin after Alvarez defeated Cotto.

The World Boxing Council, with the full cooperation of all interested parties, proudly announces the status of its Middleweight division. Upon the joint request of WBC Middleweight World Champion Saul Alvarez and WBC Middleweight Interim Champion Gennady Golovkin and their corresponding promotional companies, Golden Boy Promotions and K2 Promotions, the WBC has ruled as set forth below.

Both Alvarez and Golovkin shall be entitled to make a voluntary defense of their corresponding championships, so as to maximize the interest on their highly anticipated showdown. A 15-day free negotiation period will be ordered on the completion of the earlier of the voluntary defenses or May 31, 2016. If there is no agreement, a purse bid will be conducted under the WBC rules and regulations. If after their corresponding voluntary defenses one boxer is unable to fight the other for the undisputed WBC Middleweight Championship of the world, the unable fighter will lose his status as champion or interim champion. The fighter able to fight will be named undisputed WBC World Champion.

Canelo vs. GGG is one of the most important events in the sport of boxing, and their promotional companies and partners have been communicating openly and in good faith. The ultimate goal of all involved is to make certain that the best conditions are secured for their fighters and the boxing world, and to preserve their full commitment to abide by, and respect, the governing WBC Rules & Regulations.

The WBC, as the institution governing an eventual Canelo vs. GGG fight, hereby acknowledges, supports and agrees with the parties efforts to allow the most competitive and greatest fight to take place.

Eric Gomez, Mauricio Sulaiman and Tom Loeffler showing the signed agreement which eventually allowed Alvarez to defend vs Amir Khan while GGG defended vs Wade.

The Middleweight division is historically one of the greatest ones in our sport. So many great champions have held the WBC middleweight green and gold belt, including in alphabetical order :

Roberto Duran
Marvelous Marvin Hagler
Tommy Hearns
Bernard Hopkins
Sugar Ray Leonard
Sergio Maravilla Martinez
Carlos Monzon

Our current middleweight champion Genady GGG Golovkin is without a doubt a champion which belongs to this list of boxing icons and will proudly defend his WBC Green and Gold belt on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena against Saul Alvarez .

Thank you very much and I welcome any comments ideas or suggestions at [email protected]

Q&A: Carlos Adames
Walker wins Ohio Jr. Middleweight Championship; McCreary remains undefeated

Top Boxing News

PLEASE READ
We have a few rules to make our comment section more enjoyable for everyone.
1. Keep comments related to boxing.
2. Be respectful, polite and keep it clean.
3. Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Offending posts will be removed.
Repeat offenders will be put on moderation.
>