Report/Photos by David Finger

The 61st Annual WBC Convention kicked on Sunday night in a new and exotic location of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. But despite “The City of Stone” being located about as far from the Western Hemisphere as possible, the welcome cocktail that unofficially opened the event was a packed house with many recognizable faces from Mexico and the United States.

Former Mexican word champions Julio Cesar Chavez, Daniel Zaragoza, and Humberto “Chiquita” Gonzalez, were three of the notable guests from Mexico.

Also present for the welcome cocktails was former WBC Light Heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. Stevenson, the Haitian born Canadian, saw his career tragically cut short in 2018 when he suffered a concussion in his fight with Oleksandr Gvozdyk. After the fight Stevenson was taken to the hospital where the injuries to his brain proved severe, and he was placed in a medically induced coma. It had been reported that Stevenson had made a miraculous recovery in the years since, and his appearance at the WBC Convention only confirmed that fact. Stevenson was animated, lucid, and clearly still loved the sport of boxing.

But it wasn’t just former world champions like Roberto Duran and Amir Khan who showed up. Hundreds of judges, referees, and officials came from all over the globe to welcome in this years convention. The convention will officially start tomorrow with an opening ceremony, which will also take place at the Hilton Hotel.

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