By Mauricio Sulaimán
Son of José Sulaimán / President of the WBC

Almost two thousand years ago, the most important man in the history of humanity died. Jesus was crucified under a series of circumstances that would shape everyone’s lives, in one way or another.

Holy Week has just passed and life continues under the motivation of Jesus’ sacrifice, and finding forgiveness for ourselves and mercy and compassion towards others.

In last week’s column, I described what life was like in the year 2000 when I got married, and after a week of vacation in the company of my wife and children, all I would like is to find a way to stop the pervasive evolution that we are experiencing with technological advances that are having serious effects on our way of life, by hampering it.

A couple of weeks ago I watched in disbelief an interview that Mexico’s top journalist, Joaquín López Doriga, conducted. He interviewed Nat, the new correspondent for Grupo Fórmula, who is an artificial intelligence reporter!!!! Nat will be the encore for this network from now on and she was in a live interview responding questions like anyone of us would; That shook me up drastically. The way in which cell phones have captured us for work, entertainment, and social interaction is destroying coexistence among human beings. Now I understand why that initial phone was named “BlackBerry,” phones are a chain to us that keeps us trapped.

The immediacy of changes in the way of living together is worrying, and that is why I would like to think that things will change. But unfortunately, it is practically impossible for this to happen evenly and there is no turning back the technological advances, so we will be living with constant surging changes. The only thing we can do is to try ourselves with our close ones to go back to basics, to enjoy the moment, to slow down, to cherish a dawn or sunset, the beauty of talking to one another.

This past week there was great boxing activity, with three WBC title fights.

In Japan, Kenshiro Teraji had a demanding test against Mexican-American Anthony Olascuaga, who finally was dropped and stopped in the ninth round after a fast-paced fight that had the audience on the edge of their seats.

Olascuaga must be recognized for his intrepid bravery, since he was brought in as a last-minute substitute after the illness of the original opponent, who was unable to make it to Japan. Olascuaga has been closely associated to the WBC since his youth, as he participated and won the first ever WBC Green Belt Challenge amateur boxing tournament, and today he is a worthy future champion.

In New Jersey, Shakur Stevenson gave an extraordinary display of boxing, precision, and punching power against Japanese fighter Shuichiro Yoshino, who was comprehensively overwhelmed, so the referee stepped in to save him. He had been knocked down twice and was being picked off at will. With this victory, Shakur has earned the mandatory challenger status to face the winner of the fight, between the undisputed champion, Devin Haney, and Vasiliy Lomachenko, which will take place on May 20 at the MGM, in Las Vegas, USA.

And finally, in California there was an unexpected result, a huge upset as the now former interim WBC world super welterweight champion, Sebastián Fundora, was knocked out in a huge upset by tough opponent Brian Mendoza, who was trailing by a wide margin on the scorecards, but suddenly connected a three-punch combination that sent the Mexican-American crashing to the canvas. Fundora was dominating the action, winning all rounds on the judges’ scorecards, using his long jab and huge height and reach advantages. However, Fundora was not happy with just winning and decided to fight in the close distance and make an exciting fight, which ended up haunting him as Mendoza caught him with a crashing left hand which ended the fight.

This fight is the perfect representation of what boxing is. On one hand, the champion loses. A humble young man with a big heart, from a united family, with an unbeatable personality, always close to his father, Freddy, and his sister Gabriela, who leads him to win the friendship of those who encounters with his winning smile plus winning ways.

His defeat started with a crunching left hook connecting, due to a momentary lapse of concentration which changed everything. And now he will have to start all over again, and seek to prove to himself that he is really great, because only those who manage to overcome a defeat to triumph once again prove themselves as true champions.

On the other hand, plaudits to Brian Mendoza, a practically unknown young boxer who earned this opportunity based on hard work and sacrifice. His happiness at being declared champion was a celebration of life and the greatness of this sport.

“The first thing I’m going to do is take this Green and Gold belt to my mom,” he said, through tears of joy.

This is boxing. It gives great happiness, jubilation and celebration in one corner, but sadness, worry and suffering, to the other.

Did you know…?

Boxing is a sport where physical differences have no bearing on determining who will win a match. A prime example of this is the comparison between Fundora and Mendoza. The first has a height of 1.97m vs. 1.78m, and a reach of 203cm vs. 176cm.

The apparent physical advantage of one against the other had no relationship to the outcome of the fight.

Just as Mike Tyson faced boxers who were more than 20 centimeters taller, and even more than 25 kilograms heavier in weight.

Today’s anecdote

My family rarely took vacations like most “normal families,” due to the fact that my father traveled a lot. But Holy Week was always sacred to my family and we always traveled to visit our beloved grandfather Elías, in Ciudad Valles, San Luis Potosí.

This is one of the hottest cities in our Mexico, and the swimming pool was our cool salvation.

My dad was very obedient and respectful of his father until his last breath. One scorchingly hot day, my siblings, cousins, and friends were swimming while Don José was in the shadow, talking under the umbrella with my grandfather.

Suddenly, my father stood up to go to the pool to swim with his children. Immediately, Don Elías asked him: “Where do you think you are going?” And he replied: “I’m going to the pool to swim” dad.”

And my grandfather replied: “No way, you’re going to catch a cold.” And to everyone’s surprise, my dad threw a tremendous tantrum, turned around, and sat without saying a word for the rest of the afternoon.

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