By Mauricio Sulaimán
Son of José Sulaimán – WBC President

I want to start this weekly column by expressing my deepest condolences to our dear Victor Silva, a colleague of our organization and more than that, a member of the World Boxing Council family, for the loss of his mother last Friday.

It was a very active week in sports. The Major League Baseball playoffs had great emotional moments, as the Houston Astros returned to fight getting the series 3-3, but lost the final game, with Tampa Bay going to the World Series. Many fans celebrated this loss for Houston, which continues to be criticized for the horrendous system of stealing signals, an unforgivable action within the sport and fair play.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were able to advance to the World Series, and as I write this column are leading the series 2 games to 1.

The NFL continued the activity of a season that has seen it all, and I feel like the league is doing a wonderful job in terms of protocols related to COVID-19. Several games have had to be postponed, having positive test results, and another issue that has turned out to be dramatic is the number of injuries that have occurred to many players. Just last Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback suffered a dramatic injury, leaving him out of the rest of the season. Our sincere best wishes go to Dak Prescott for his healthy recovery, it is incredible that on the same day that Alex Smith returned after a 2 year lay off from a similar injury, Prescott gets hurt.

The Los Angeles Lakers won one more championship, but this one with great significance, being a tribute to Kobe Bryant, who died earlier this year in a plane crash that shook the entire world.

In Mexican soccer, we saw the return of the public to the stadiums, and in general there is great activity in the sport worldwide.

As for boxing, The world witnessed one of the most dramatic fights in years with 8 knockdowns in 5 rounds with Jose Zepeda defeating Ivan Baranchyk in dramatic fashion capturing the WBC silver super lightweight title, last Saturday we witnessed one of the most anticipated fights in recent years. The Ukrainian phenomenon: Vasyl Lomachenko, faced who is now one of the stars of the boxing world, Honduran Teófimo López.

The lightweight division has become one of the most interesting, as a great tournament for supremacy occurred naturally.

It all started with this fight between Lomachenko and Lopez. On November 7, Devin Haney, WBC world champion, will defend his belt against Cuban superstar Yuriorkis Gamboa, and on December 5, the sensational young Ryan García will dispute the interim title against Luke Campbell; Furthermore, the date for the long-awaited fight between Jorge Linares and Javier Fortuna will be announced soon.

A great boxing card took place last night in Mexico City, at the TV Azteca facilities, Matchroom and Zanfer teamed up to present three world title fights and a tremendous undercard.

A lot of effort was required to present this card under the current world situation, and we can all be proud for the success as it was simply sensational. DAZN and TV Azteca, as well as on ESPN Knockout, brought the activity to millions of fans around the world

WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar “Rey” Martinez blew out late replacement Moises Calleros in just 2 rounds with a tremendous demonstration of skills and power. Chocolatito Gonzalez, the hero of Nicaragua has a tough opponent in Israel Gonzalez and managed to win an entertaining unanimous decision and the main event, a rematch between WBC champion Juan Francisco “ Gallo” Estrada vs WBC former champion Carlos “Principe” Cuadras turned into one of the best fights in lower weight divisions history. Estrada had to get up from the canvas and survive an early lead by Cuadras, cut in both eyes from legal punches and showed the world why he is the best super flyweight in the world. Estrada dropped Cuadras twice in the 11th and referee Guadalupe Garcia stopped the bout. Instant classic

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