Report/Photos: Boxing Bob Newman

It was a late night/early morning for many conventioners as the WBC closing banquet was held across town at the posh Baku Palace, a vast hall equipped for large-scale events.

Seemingly endless courses were served of local fare such as lamb, salmon, stuffed grape leaves and so much more. A full orchestra took the stage for the duration, belting out everything from old standards “New York, New York,” to current hits like “Despacio.”

Evander Holyfield was quite content lip-synching along from his front-and-center table. Then he was called to duty by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman to officially hand the WBC flag over to a representative of Ukraine, whose capital Kiev will host the 2018 gathering. Most delegates opted to return to the Fairmont Baku host hotel on the early buses, service Ng back at 10:30. For some of us, the 2:30 a.m. wake time for an early morning info flight out came way too soon. Such is life…until next year in Kiev!