By Mauricio Sulaiman
WBC President – Jose Sulaiman’s son

I started the year with a very fruitful trip to Los Angeles as I was able to hold several important meetings to kickoff 2018.

I had the pleasure to meet Antonio Villaraigoza who is a candidate to become Governor of the state of California. Mr Villaraigoza loves boxing and has been supportive of our sport for a long time. He will be launching a program which will bring social responsibility campaigns through boxing.

The WBC Los Angeles office has become a very important asset of the WBC as it serves as a bridge closer to the boxing community, especially the boxers. This office serves as a platform for boxers, we provide photoshoot sessions resulting in high quality photographs that the fighters may use and this is a gift from the WBC. Our meeting resulted in the creation of the action plan for 2018 with many interesting things coming soon.

My brother Pepe is in charge of the office and is continuously in communication with the fighters of the area, amateur, four rounders or world champions! It doesn’t matter, this is the WBC family.

I was so happy to meet Israel Vazquez and Jose Ramirez as we celebrated together the Three wise kings tradition at the office and Ramirez piece of the round cake had the lucky prize and he won a WBC miniature belt!

I met with WBC Medical Committee Chairman, Dr. Paul Wallace and we discussed the 2018 action plan. The WBC’s success has been based on our interest in medical research and medical studies which have led to the current rules of boxing. It was through the UCLA – WBC plan that it was determined that rules in boxing needed to be adjusted and changed. Championship fights were reduced from 15 to 12 rounds, the official weigh-in was changed from day of the fight to 24-30 hours before the fight, mandatory safety weigh-ins 30 and 7 days before the fight, Abolishment of 6 oz gloves, female fights for no more than 10 rounds and 2 minute rounds and so many more…

The WBC Nutrition Committee was created last year and I met with Chairman Dr. Gogglia to set the plan for the year. He will interact with other WBC committees as nutrition is such an important topic which is currently being ignored by many. There will be direct interaction with the Clean Boxing Program as many fighters mistakenly take supplements which could be easily eliminated through a nutrition plan. The Medical committee will work hand in hand and also the fight administration committee as everything that has to do with the 30 and 7 day weigh-in can benefit with a nutritional plan as well.

I was looking at the WBC lineup for 2018. The numbers are simply incredible. The quality of the WBC champions is humbling, 13 out of the 17 champions are undefeated, 3 only have one loss. So WBC champions combined record is 529 wins 7 losses!

One of the WBC priorities has been the support to women’s boxing and we can proud ourselves to have been the organization which has led the sport to find growth in all aspects for women. The 2 world female boxing conventions were a great success and it is a fact that 2018 will be a groundbreaking year for these athletes who deserve the Tv Exposure and larger purses.

The WBC will organize the third World Convention for Women’s boxing and will continue to find ways to support their growth.

I wish everybody a healthy and happy 2018 and Long Live Boxing!

Thank you. I welcome any comments, ideas or suggestions at [email protected].