By David Finger

In what would be a historic day for the WBO and the sport of boxing, the final day of the 37th Annual World Boxing Organization Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico concluded with the resignation and retirement of WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel and the emergence of a new President in Gustavo Olivieri Miranda, an energetic and young attorney who had worked as a defense attorney and as in-house counsel for the WBO for the last seven years.

Also at hand to celebrate the career of President Valcarcel and offer congratulations to the new incoming WBO president were the presidents of the other three major sanctioning organizations.

“Boxing is about history,” WBC President Maurico Suilaman told Olivieri. “The responsibility that comes from a leader in an organization is difficult to understand. I believe that Paco has shown today, in the presence of the other organizations, promoters, managers, trainers, millions from all over the world, coming to say ‘long liv the king’. In reality to be a leader, I am certain you have the attributes. You are an honorable person. You are a person…with the support that has unanimously been given to you, I am certain that you will continue to lead. I have personally know Gustavo, he is a very decent, honorable man that loves boxing. That is loyal. The way he has given his life to Paco and the WBO makes certain that your leaving the organization in good hands. I assure you that you will find in the WBC a friend, a loyal supporter, and we will work together to make boxing safer.”

Following Sulaiman’s touching speech, IBF President Daryl Peoples spoke, and it was clear that Peoples, a longtime friend of Valcarcel, was still shocked at the announcment.

“I knew the day was going to come,” Peoples told the attendees at the WBO Convention, “I just wasn’t expecting that it was going to be today. As Mauricio said, we are colleagues, we are friends Is it a love fest all the time? No it’s not. But we come together and try and find solutions that try and help boxing.”

Peoples then spoke about his long friendship with Valcarcel and his support for Olivieri.

“I can’t say enough about Paco,” Peoples added. “A confidant…he was the first one that reached out to me when I became president. This guy is family. So is Gustavo. Gustavo has been a great student. Under the leadership of Paco he has dealt with some of the toughest things. It’s bittersweet, I am not losing a friend. He is just changing his hat. I can assure you, we are still going to maintain our relationship. Gustavo…you have the unwavering support of the IBF.”

From there WBA President Gilberto Mendoza also spoke in support of both Paco and incoming president Olivieri, reiterating the sentiments of Sulaiman and Peoples in promising continued support for the new president.

Also speaking in support of both the former and incoming president was a promoter whose strong relationship with the WBO helped it emerge as one of the major organizations in boxing: Bob Arum.

By the time the speakers were done what normally was the most exciting event of the final day, the ratings committee sessions, were almost an afterthought as many of the attendees were still recovering from the emotional roller coaster that was the retirement of Valcarcel.

In the 105-pound division, Olivieri noted that the WBO champion is slated to fight in a unification with the WBA champion in Saudi Arabia. Edward Ligas spoke on behalf of #2 raked Victorio Saludar, the WBO Oriental champion, asking the committee to rank him at #1 as he had already beaten the current #1 ranked fighter Masataka Taniguchi. Edito Villamor spoke on behalf of #14 ranked Christian Balunan, the current Asia-Pacific Youth champion.

In the 108-pound weight division, a discussion was had over the current #6 ranked Rene Santiago, who just won the previous night in Puerto Rico. Also, discussed was #1 ranked Regie Suganob, the WBO Global champion, who had a representative speak on his behalf.

In the women’s 112-pound weight division, female champion Gabriela Alaniz spoke to ratings committee and basically called out the entire division, saying she would fight anyone in the rankings and will go to anyones home town to do so.

In the 118-pound men’s division, former world champion Nonito Donaire petitioned to be ranked in the division, indicating he was going to make one more run at another world title in the coming months. Although he has not won a fight since 2021, losing to Naoya Inoue in 2022 and Alexandro Santiago in 2023, there is little question that an active Filipino Flash can give quite a few bantamweights a serious run for their money.

In the 122-pound division, President Olivieri confirmed that there will be a meeting of the Presidents to discuss the status of the division, and that a decision should be expected in the coming weeks. With all four belts held by Naoya Inoue, who was designated a “Super Champion” of the WBO, Olivieri made a point to reiterate his views on interim champions in situations like this.

“We do not sanction interim championships,” Olivieri noted. “We only like to consider them for unification or injury. It should be rare.”

Under WBO rules, as a Super Champion, Inoue will be the only WBO champion but will be given special consideration with regard to the time period he is allowed for making mandatory defenses of his title.

In the 122-pound women’s division representatives for the #5 ranked Daniela Bermudez petitioned to move her into the featherweight rankings as she is moving up in weight.

In the featherweight division, it was announced that #12 ranked Raymond Ford is moving up to 130-pounds and that he was requesting a ranking at junior lightweight. With the opening at #12, Tom Loeffler asked to have his fighter, #15 ranked Omar Trinidad, take Ford’s spot.

At 130-pounds, the WBO confirmed that Emanuel Navarrete is still the champion, even though he came up short in his last fight against Denys Berinchyk for the lightweight title. However, the WBO did make a rare exception on their general policy against interim belts and Oscar Valdez is currently the interim champion.

At lightweight the aforementioned Denys Berinchyk is champion, but he may be running out of time for a voluntary defense. It was confirmed that he was scheduled to fight in Saudi Arabia, but his scheduled opponent lost and they were unable to find a new opponent in a timely fashion. As of right now, there will be no voluntary fight for the Ukrainian champion. #3 ranked Keshawn Davis has a fight with #13 ranked Gustavo Daniel Lemos. It was implied that the winner is probably going to be the mandatory for Berinchyk.

Kevin Rooney from Matchroom Boxing made a push for #14 Andy Cruz to move up to the #7 spot.

At 147-pounds, Carl Moretti confirmed that #7 ranked Derrieck Cuevas is set to fight world champion Brian Norman Jr. in early March after the fight was delayed due to an injury. The fight was originally set for November 8th. Francis Warren of Queensberry pushed to have #9 ranked European Champion Ekow Essuman move up after he defends his title this weekend. Warren was hopeful that Essuman could get a top five spot. Also making a push for a top five ranking was unranked Blair Cobbs, who scored back-to-back wins over former world champions in Maurice Hooker and Adrian Broner.

In the junior middleweight division it was noted that Sebastian Fundora was supposed to fight interim champion Terence Crawford, but that due to Crawford negotiating for a fight with Saul “Canelo” Alverez, it was noted that Crawford was agreeable to stepping aside and not enforcing the mandatory fight. But although Crawford had no objection to Fundora doing a voluntary, President Olivieri did recognize that the current status quo was untenable at 154 and that the interim title may be terminated if Crawford ends up fighting Alvarez or if the Fundora-Crawford fight does not happen. However, Olivieri recognized the financial incentive for Crawford moving up in weight to take on Alvarez, and recognized the fight was one that would generate a great deal of interest from the fans.

“Knowing that Crawford wants to fight Canelo, we need to take action with the interim.” Olivieri noted. “We have a very strict and consistent policy regarding interims.”

At middleweight, the deadline to negotiate a deal for the mandatory fight between Zhanibek Alimkhanuly and #1 ranked Hamzah Sheeraz was extended for an additional week at the request of the promoters. The original deadline to work out a deal was November 4th.

In the super middleweight division, it was noted that WBO super champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had 18 months to discharge another mandatory as he just fought his mandatory challenger in Jaime Munguia back in May.

In the light heavyweight division, Artur Beterbiev was recognized for his unification of all four light heavyweight titles.

“We promote the unifications,” Olivieri said before noting that, as a super champion, Beterbiev would have up to 18 months to do mandatory. Although Ghanian Joshua Buatsi is the current interim champion, Olivieri noted the specific conditions on the interim title.

“Right now there is no mandatory,” Olivieri noted. “The mandatory is Buatsi, but it has to be called in due course.”

In the cruiserweight division, Chris Billam-Smith is unifying the title on November 16th in Riyadh. Markus Aslani made a statement on behalf of former Cuban boxer Mike Perez noting that he has recovered and, recognizing that he has lost some time away from the ring, that he is ready to fight anyone even on short notice.

In the heavyweight division, it was noted that the mandatory will be allowed in due time. President Olivieri noted that the committee “reserves the right to allow a trilogy” of the Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury fight, depending on what happens on December 21 in Saudi Arabia when the two champions fight in a rematch. Francis Warren indicated that Joseph Parker was set to defend his interim title in the first quarter of 2025 but there were no plans as to who he is fighting yet.

After the ratings committee concluded their work, a presentation was made for the 2025 WBO Convention being held in Bogota, Colombia. Although WBO European Vice President Istavn Kovacs made a strong push for Budapest, he eventually withdrew his bid and Bogota was voted on unanimously by the executive committee.

The event concluded with the Gala Dinner, which was hosted by Jimmy Lennon Jr. In addition to the awards that were handed out, it was revealed during the Gala Dinner and celebration afterwards that the new WBO President was an impressive drummer as he took the stage to play with the band.

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