Photos: Sumio Yamada
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is currently holding its thirty-second annual convention at the Tokyo Dome Hotel in the city of Tokyo, Japan. “The WBO has been in Japan for about 7 years,” said WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel. “We have Tomoki Kameda, who was crowned the first WBO World champion in 2013. We are doing great in Japan and as a tribute to Japan, we decided to come here to have a great convention where we’ll discuss boxers’ safety as the main issue.”
“We have been collecting data from different sources. We want to establish a research program, perhaps donating funds to a Med School so that they can work on the issue from a scientific point of view and recommend to us the steps one should follow, the protocol needed to make boxing a safer sport.
“We have other issues concerning safety, like the referees have to be better prepared in case of any emergency. We will work on seminars with the officials in this matter. We need better judging, better doctors, ringside physicians. We have to train the supervisors, the local commissions. We will touch all these issues during the convention.”
“Japan is a boxing nation, great fighters, great history in the sport. Everybody recognizes Japan as a main point of boxing for the sport in all Asia. They have champions like Naoya Inoue, Kosei Tanaka, Kasumi Saeki, Kazuto Ioka, Miyo Yoshida, Tenkai Tsunami, Mika Iwakawa, Ryota Murata.”
“Having our convention here in Japan allows the participation of more fighters from Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, China, among others, and give them the opportunity to fight for WBO titles.”
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Safety can be interpreted in many ways. Aside from the physical aspect of protecting a fighter’s health, why not keep the atmosphere of boxing as a sport safe from corruption, shady judges, promotors manipulating stipulations for their fighters, and bribes? Why not start cracking down on these problems to enhance the competition and give everyone a fair shot in the sport? The WBO knows who I am talking about if they read this article.
You figure WBO could govern and clean-up the sport themselves? That would take more of a collaboration with the other major title organizations. The WBC being the main one and we know they have internal corruption issues themselves. Boxing is not ran by a league and so cleaning up the sport universally is wishful thinking at this point.
Each governing body can be their own catalyst to make things happen. Nobody knows what the future will hold. Not even you…..