By David Finger
Day two of the 31st annual WBO Convention kicked off Wednesday Morning (October 31) and after a morning of furious negotiations between WBO Vice President of Europe Istvan “Koko” Kovacs and Australian member Danny Leigh, the WBO Trans-Oceanic was renamed and approved after a unanimous vote. Leigh, Kovacs, and WBO Vice President of Asia-Pacific Leon Panoncello originally reached a compromise name of WBO Global Nations, a suggestion that was met with little enthusiasm from WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel.
“I’ve got my concerns,” Valcarcel said after hearing the new name, “You don’t think we could create a problem with that organization…with that name?”
It was a concern that was made all the more pronounced when WBO Legal Advisor Andrew Horn pulled out his smartphone to see if the name was already in common use.
“I think it is a questionable trademark violation,” Horn added as he showed the results of his brief internet search to President Valcarcel.
Valcarcel proposed simply striking the last half of the proposed name, going instead with WBO Global. Although some members expressed concern about WBO Global creating some confusion between global and world titles, the overall reception to the new name was positive and the board unanimously voted to approve WBO Global as the newest regional belt.
The executive committee concluded around 10 AM, however for the WBO officials the day was only beginning as judges seminars kicked off at 8 AM that morning with Duane Ford giving an informative session on judging fights. After lunch Jack Reiss gave an informative and effective training seminar on refereeing fights while using numerous video clips of real fights to discuss several important topics. The lecture was informative and educational, with Reiss taking advantage of numerous video clips of curveballs that referees see in the boxing ring and to discuss with others how they would handle similar scenarios. Perhaps most notable was when Reiss played the clip of the infamous Curtis Harper-Efe Ajagba fight where Harper walked out of the ring the second the bell sounded in round one. Reiss called on one of the attendees, Celestino Ruiz, to speak to the other attendees about the fight…an interesting discussion considering Ruiz was the referee for that fight. But Reiss didn’t give all the referees a glowing review like he did with Ruiz’s handling of that unexpected development. Some clips featured referees simply making a mistake and pointing out how the referee blew the call. Reiss even posted a video of himself missing a knockdown as evidence that “we all make mistakes”. But Reiss stressed that it was their job as referees to learn from their mistakes and not continue to make the same mistake over and over. He also added that in addition to fighter safety, a referee should leave his commission it the “best defensible position” by not making a decision that would leave his commission exposed to liability because of his or her mistake.
After the referee’s seminar ended many of the participants elected to head over to the Hotel El Panama Convention Center where New Mexico’s Jason Sanchez took on Puerto Rico’s Jean Carlos Rivera in a bout for the vacant WBO Youth Featherweight title. The final day of the convention will conclude on Thursday with the ever popular champions and rankings committee session.