By Boxing Bob Newman

Day 4 of the WBC 57th annual convention saw some presentations and the official closing of the convention.

Life-long Argentine boxing journalist Osvaldo Principi delivered a talk on record keeping. Going back before the internet, even before home computers, Principi logged records on index cards and handwritten logs and journals. Separating professional from amateur was also paramount in Principi’s talk.

Don Majeski followed up with an addendum to his earlier query on the difference between amateurs and professionals.

Mauricio Sulaiman wants to create a committee comprising of both amateur and professional officials to further study the problematic issues between the pro and amateur game, especially the Olympic boxing issue.

Dr. Paul Wallace gave a final report on the medical board meeting held this week. One issue needing to be addressed is the appointing of ringside physicians who lack specific qualifications and minimal safety standards to work WBC fights especially.

There is a “serious injury and death” questionnaire to be filled out in the case of those scenarios occurring during a WBC affiliated fight. To date, there has been poor compliance with those questionnaires being filled out. It has been recommended that the WBC supervisors be responsible for that compliance.

There has been rumor of a “Senior tour” of older former champions competing in sanctioned exhibitions or bouts. For example, there has been talk of Roy Jones, Jr. and Bernard Hopkins having a third “fight” to settle their differences. There is great concern for the safety of older fighters engaging in such bouts.

Again, the two-year ban within the WBC, for any pro fighter who participates in the upcoming 2020 Olympics will be enforced. There are also measures being taken within various state and international commissions to revoke pro licenses for those same boxers.

Injuries incurred in gyms during training are encouraged to be reported, with consequences to the fighter and camps who try to skirt reporting such injuries and knockouts in training.

A World Medical Congress is being planned, with dates and locations to be ironed out and forthcoming.

Just before Don Majeski departed the convention, he imparted his thoughts on three topics:

Creating a super heavyweight division. Upon studying the last 35 WBC heavyweight title fights, at least one of the participants weights over 225 lbs. Majeski feels there is a huge disadvantage to at least one of the participants in such cases.

Secondly, Majeski feels there are very devious methods being employed to avoid paying sanctioning fees based on what a fighter is being paid. Fighters will be be contracted for one purse, but publicly file a much lower purse and pay the sanctioning fee based on that artificially low purse. “We need to find a way to disallow these dishonest measures which are happening more than we know.”

Lastly, Majeski feels African ring officials need greater opportunities outside of Africa, in order to gain experience. “Stanley Christodoulou is an exception, but we need more officials from the continent of Africa to have higher level opportunities.

Kirill Shchekutyev delivered a presentation to promote having the 58th WBC convention in St. Petersburg, Russia. A motion was made and accepted to hold the convention in St. Petersburg. However, the Ukrainian delegation opposed this as the war situation between Russia and Ukraine will make Ukrainina travel to Russia almost impossible. Mauricio Sulaiman proposed making inroads to alleviate tensions between the two countries and travel to Russia for Ukrainians more possible. Sulaiman noted that the 56th convention was held in Ukraine and many Russians were in attendance.

Hubert Minn gave the Ring Officials Seminar report. This seminar actually compiled a summary review with pros and cons. Regarding the pros, attendees indicated how much they learned from these exercises. New techniques and processes were appreciated and valued such as the concept of the “Mental Computer.” 99% of attendees desired additional training. The cons were- numerous technical difficulties, sound, size of rooms, video issues.

Minn emphasized the WBC policy statement:

All seminars under the WBC shall be approved and authorized by the WBC and ring officials committee. The WBC will be notified in writing regarding the requested event and a request form will be filled out and sent to the WBC. Seminar requests shall be reviewed and approved before any scheduling.

Mauricio Sulaiman expressed to Minn, “We are on the same page. This is why we’ve spent the last year building the WBC University for training of ring officials.”

A video was aired recognizing the WBC MuayThai champions in both male and female divisions. Next year, a WBC Muay Thai convention will be held in Bangkok, Thailand in March, 2020. Kevin Noone was given the WBC ambassador award for his work with WBC Muay Thai and ABCO.

Charlie Giles was presented the Loyalty and Honor award for his work in re-affiliating the BBBC (British Boxing Board of Control) back with the WBC after a several year hiatus.

Syed Nauman Sman of Pakistan presented a special Pakistani version of the WBC belt to Mauricio Sulaiman along with boxing gloves adorned with the Pakistani flag and a Pakistani soccer ball, which Mauricio deftly dribbled with his foot to the delight of the crowd. The WBC committed to the development of boxing in Pakistan as well as the Orient region.

Ahmed Seddiqi, managing partner of Round 10 Boxing Club in Kazakhstan, made a presentation of the partnership with MTK Promotions and the growth of their enterprise in the Kazakh region.

12-year-old Charlie “The Hammer” Hall, an autistic Australian lad, along with his parents, made a presentation on anti-bullying. “The Hammer” will appear in the ring against current WBC/WBO unified 140 lb. champion Jose Carlos Ramirez on the boxing card Saturday night.

It was announced that this convention had 1315 registered attendees.

So, until 2020 in St. Petersburg, Russia….!