Report/Photos by David Finger
Day two of the 36th Annual WBO Congress kicked off Tuesday morning (October 10th) at the Barcelo Bavaro Palace Resort and Convention Center in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with a continuation of the regional vice president’s reports starting with WBO Asia-Pacific and WBO Oriental Vice President Leon Panoncillo’s regional report. Panoncillo is possibly the busiest regional head of any sanctioning organization, also heading the WBO International, WBO China, and WBO Africa in addition to the WBO Asia-Pacific and WBO Oriental.
He started with his report of the WBO Asia-Pacific, advising the committee that from the dates of November 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 the WBO A/P held six regional championship fights, with total revenue of $15,375. Since January 1 of this year Panoncillo reported twenty-one regional championship fights with $52,771.62 in total revenue, for a grand total of $68,146.62 since the last convention.
He then discussed the latest developments with WBO Asia-Pacific women’s boxing, which also saw tremendous activity since the last convention. Panoncillo reported five title fights from November 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023 with total revenue reported in the amount of $12,345 USD. In regard to the WBO Asia-Pacific Youth, there was only one championship fight since the last convention, with $2,475 USD in revenue for the WBO.
From there Panoncillo moved on to his income report from WBO International, with seventeen championship fights reported since the last convention. The close of 2022 saw four of those WBO International fights, with $40,317.20 USD of total revenue and thirteen regional title fights for the WBO International since the start of the year, with $66,801 USD in total revenue (for a total amount of $107,118.20 in total revenue since the last convention). He also discussed the status of the WBO International Female championship belts, with only one fight for that title since the last convention (with revenue of $3,325 from that fight). As with European Vice President Istvan Kovacs, Panoncillo also expressed his frustration with Boxrec over their failure to list the WBO International Female title on their webpage.
Panoncillo then moved on the his income report for the WBO Oriental. Panoncillo stated that although the WBO Oriental does not operate much in Japan (where most of the regional championship fights are WBO Asia-Pacific fights) it was still a popular title in the region, with fifteen title fights from November 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023 and $43,058.51 USD in revenue.
WBO Youth also had a productive year for a Youth belt, with six title fights in the same time period with an additional $12,225 in revenue. WBO Africa saw nine title fights with $24,375 USD in revenue while WBO Greater China saw only one title fight with $1,975 in revenue. In total Panoncillo oversaw an eye-popping 80 regional title fights from Asia to Africa, with an impressive $264,009.96 in revenue, a substantial increase from 2021-2022, which saw 69 regional belts an $249,255.02 in revenue.
Upon the completion of Panoncillo’s report, WBO Global Vice President Danny Leigh gave a report on the status of WBO Global, discussing the success of the newest WBO regional championship. Leigh added that it is growing like “wild fire” and he added that there has been seventeen WBO Global fights, before stating that its success has very much been a group effort, with Leigh and Panoncillo working closely with other regional heads like “Koko” Kovacs of WBO Europe. He then discussed that the growth of WBO boxing in Australia and how some of the top fights in the sport are now taking place in Australia.
Following Leigh’s report on WBO Global, WBO Latino member Jesuan Letizia gave the WBO Latino report on behalf of WBO Latino Vice President Jorge Molina. Since the last convention, WBO Latino saw nineteen championship fights with a total of $43,520 in revenue raised for the WBO. Three of the WBO Latino champions would fought for world titles since the last convention, a sight bump from 2022 (when two Latino champions fought for the world title) Just as was seen in 2022, one of the WBO Latino champions fighting for the world title would go on two become a world champion. Letizia would go on to share one of the most impressive statistics in boxing, noting that since its inception, 199 Latino champion fought for a world title, with 52 of those Latino champions winning a world title. Boxing, like every sport, is very much a crapshoot when it comes to selecting draft picks, But with an impressive 26% win percentage, a fighter holding the WBO Latino title remains one of the surest signs that you are seeing a future world champion in the ring. Letizia also added that there have been a total of 738 fights in history of WBO Latino.
Upon the conclusion of the WBO Latino report, Richard De Cuir did a presentation on the NABO. He started by a special thanks to both NABO Executive Director Diana Melendez and NABO member Gustavo Olivieri. He added that in 2021 there were thirteen bouts for the NABO belt. In 2022 it went up to fifteen and revenue stream went up to almost $69K. So far in 2023 the NABO had 14 bouts with $86,900 in revenue and, as De Cuir noted, the year isn’t over yet. He noted that revenue have gone up about 30% even though the number of fights have remained pretty much the same. When discussing venue, he noted that there were NABO fights in Canada (1), USA (9), and Mexico (4). He also added that the State of California itself had five. Other locations included Mexico City, Ohio, Florida, New York, and one fight in Texas. However, De Cuir did express disappoint that many of the NABO belts were currently vacant, particularly in the lighter weight classes.
“You can see why,” De Cuir conceded, “the fighters you see out of Canada, Mexico, and USA are of heavier weights.”
Of the seventeen NABO belts, nine are currently vacant, something De Cuir admitted that they will be “working on this year.”
WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel recognized there was a need to fill some of these vacant NABO belts and expressed a desire to assist with the project.
“I’m going to be more active with you guys,” Valcarcel said, “and we will see if that helps.”
What initially seemed like a report that would lack fireworks proved to be arguably the most exciting discussion of the first two days of the WBO Congress as attorney Dr. Antonio Roman discussed the status of the WBO trademark and his attempts to register new trademarks in new locations. What started as a discussion about the status of WBO trademarks in Europe soon turned into a colorful discussion about the “other organization” which has (according to some WBO members) took steps to create a virtual monopoly on European belts. Dr. Roman started by advising that various WBO trademarks have been registered in Colombia, Australia, and the Philippines without much issue or cost, before adding that although WBO trademarks were initially rejected in China, that he and his team was able to salvage some victories on that front, noting that after a series of appeals the WBO Intercontinental was accepted.
In Ukraine the trademarks were accepted with no exceptions and in seventeen different African nations the WBO trademarks and those trademarks had been accepted and no expense was incurred in that process. In Cuba there “was a problem but it was solved” according to Dr. Roman. He added that there were some objections to their registrations in North America, but the WBO appealed and “some concessions were made”, although he did not specify what these concessions were. In Japan all the proposed trademarks were rejected, but after filing appeals the WBO won on appeal with regards to all of the requested trademarks. In Mexico there emerged an unusual problem with their registration of the WBO trademark when it was rejected for an unexpected reason. As it turned out, there was already a WBO trademark in Mexico that was sports-related, although it was not related to the sport of boxing. It also appeared that this trademark was long dormant or had been abandoned.
“We wanted that (other trademark) to be canceled because that didn’t exist,” Dr. Roman told the executive committee, “when notice was sent to that other WBO those people didn’t exist or at least they didn’t respond. It is expected that this action to cancel that other trademark will be successful.”
Dr. Roman then discussed expanding the trademark into Arabia (WBO Arabia) and even into other Middle Eastern regions. From there he opened an unexpected door as he discussed what he felt was the “collusion” of some governmental boxing authorities with what he initially referred to as the other “organization.”
He noted that WBO regional European titles were not being sanctioned in Italy, Spain, France and Finland. As it turned out, a member of the Italian Boxing Federation, Alberto Tappa, was present in the audience and stepped forward to defend the actions of the Italian Boxing Federation, claiming that there was no collusion with this other sanctioning body, which was quickly unmasked as the EBU.
But although there were no shortages of lawyers on the WBO Executive Committee, it was WBO Europe ember Markus Aslani who conducted the most vigorous cross-examination.
“EBU is nothing more than WBC Europe” Aslani stated, “Its discrimination. We know that Italia is very close to the EBU. We have to be honest, there is no EBU. It’s WBC Europe.”
WBO Europe Vice President “Koko” Kovacs was also a former EBU champion and noted that he went to EBU back in 2006-2007 to try and work with them.
“They refused but the board was all WBC,” Kovacs added.
Attempting to deflect some of the criticism, Tappa claimed that “the Italian Boxing Federation never said no.”
“You have problems with promoters but the Italian Boxing Federation never said no,” Tappa claimed, “we will sanction the fight. I never say the word discrimination.”
It promoted a sharp rebuke from Aslani.
“I never said you said it, but that what you do is discrimination.” Aslani replied.
After several forceful questions about how the title is not referred to as a European title by the Italian Boxing Federation, and allegations that the Italian Boxing Federation makes statements to promoters that a WBO European title would lead to being dropped from the EBU rankings, Tappa eventually conceded some of those points to Aslani. By the end of the cross examination, members of the executive committee were openly discussing filing a lawsuit or some other judicial action for cessation. Dr. Ramon and President Valcarcel discussed damages and personal liability of individuals involved in this behavior, with the strong indication that a lawsuit would be pending. Luis Bautista Salas then made a motion regarding giving Dr. Ramon full support to do whatever was needed to register WBO trademarks.
From there WBO World Super Featherweight champion Emanuel Navarrete stepped forward and was presented a plaque and a portrait by the WBO, as well as being named a WBO Super Champion and being presented with a new WBO Super Champion world title belt. Navarrete thanked the WBO and his fans and his home country.
“I would also like to thank Mexico,” Navarrete told the crowd, “I hope I will be able to continue and represent the WBO.”
Concluding the day was President Valcarcel’s report. Valcarcel noted that the WBO was “in good standing” and had weathered the storm that was COVID. He thanked the regional vice presidents and many WBO members for their hard work and added that they have the opportunity to expand WBO.
“That’s why we are looking to register WBO Arabia,” Valcarcel noted, “because there is a request from that region. We have a good presence there. A good reputation there.”
Valcarcel also stressed the WBO’s continued commitment to “quality over quantity”.
“We don’t believe in interim titles,” Valcarcel added, “we believe in regional titles and one champion per division. We have super champions, but we showed the world that we were correct when we used it. We must continue forward with our proactive steps and boxing must stay clean.”
After his report, the executive committee did vote to raise the salary of the WBO president from $8,000 a month to a more reasonable $10,000 a month, which is still one of the lowest salaries for the head of any major sports organization.