The “99 Years of WBA History” forum has been one of the most important among those organized for the Online Convention of the pioneering organization. Gilberto Mendoza, President of the WBA, joined Don King and Bob Arum, the two most important promoters in the sport’s history, in a great talk about the organization and boxing in general.
King worked with many great fighters in history and is still an important figure. He congratulated the WBA for reaching 99 years and talked about his beginning, the racial challenges, his relationship with the WBA and the fights he has organized during his long career.
“I started boxing because Muhammad Ali called me when he was out of his exile. He asked me to help him. I started with him. I used to go to his fights and that’s how I got into the boxing world,” King said.
The famous promoter remembered Gilberto Mendoza’s father and how he used to work: “Gilberto Mendoza Sr. always kept his word. Maybe the situation was not appropriate, but Gilberto worked with his whole team to keep his word.”
These two legendary promoters had their rivalry in the past and talked about it and how it helped them improve. On that matter, Arum highlighted that the competition was positive for boxing.
“Competing in the way King and I did helped us be better promoters,” said the Top Rank President.
Boxing is going through a difficult time due to the pandemic. Arum talked about what it is like to organize fights under this circumstance and how good it feels to do a part for the sport’s recovery. However, he assured it is not easy. “To promote boxing in this pandemic means you’re not sleeping at night,” he said.
The forum had enough time for everything. They also talked about their current political point of views and their differences, based on personal respect.
King sometimes was like the Jerry Springer of boxing. In other words, never a dull moment with his goofy rants, controversial hair doo, waving flags at promotions like it was a parade, and most of all, his controversial past personal life is like a campfire tale to tell all. What a wild life!
These 3 have sacrificed so much to give boxers great amounts of money .All 3 are very kind hearted.
Love them or hate them, they made the best fights in the history of the game. And make no mistake about it, they always had the finest fighters. Meanwhile Arum is still at the head of the game, the others are sleeping and doing nothing to keep the sport alive. BTW it’s interesting that all the other promoters are much younger than Arum, and yet they cannot get their act together. Now a miracle might happen and maybe HBO gets back into the game. YEAH in my dreams.