By Boxing Bob Newman
Day two of the 56th annual WBC convention in Kiev, Ukraine was chock full of simultaneous activity. Starting with the ratings committee at 9 a.m., the medical seminar commenced at 10 a.m., along with the confederations meetings and the judges certification seminar at the same time. The WBC Cares departed the hotel at 11:30 a.m.
The ratings meeting is always one of the most highly contentious events at the convention. Assembled promoters, managers and agents all attend to lobby for the position of their respective fighters, sometimes aggressively so. This often drags out the proceedings for an uncomfortably long time. This year however, things went quite well and swiftly. Ratings chairman Bob Yalen was assisted by Dean Louhis. For whatever reason, there was relatively little objection to where fighters were presented in the rankings, leaving little room for debate.
The WBC did express that it is going along with the World Boxing Super Series tournament format. The WBC will not let those results, where a fighter is committed to fighting within the bracket system and may win other belts along the way, penalize a fighter already ranked by the WBC.
Undisputed female welterweight champ Cecilia Braekhus stopped by the ratings meeting to bid WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and fellow convention goers farewell. She thanked Sulaiman for the support of the WBC and said she hopes to make at least a couple more defenses…leaving things open-ended as to moving up in weight or retiring. For his part, Sulaiman credited Braekhus for being a shining example in and outside the ring.
The medical board meeting centered on the hot topic of hydration in boxing. Two guest speakers, Ian Campbell and Roger Meacock of Totum Sport, introduced their product and talked about the science of rehydration using 78 key electrolytes and their benefit and function.
Members of the board, led by Dr. Paul Wallace also delved into the safe, acceptable percentage of weight gain due to rehydration after the 24 hour pre-fight weigh-in.
Tonight there will be a fight card at the Sports Palace not far from the hotel.
