WBC News

WORLD BOXING COUNCIL NEWS

September 27, 2011 – Mexico City.

From the office of WBC President Dr. José Sulaimán:

The following is one of the weekly “Hook to the Body” columns by WBC President Dr. José Sulaimán that are published in El Universal every Sunday. From September 25, translated from Spanish:

HOOK TO THE BODY

By José Sulaimán

I recently suffered the very painful and sad news of the passing away of my oldest friend since childhood, Jacinto Lárraga, a grandson of a hero of the Mexican Revolution from our home state. We both went through the different levels of school together during those years when the art of fighting in grammar school and high school was common. He became the leader of our gang to fight other kids, as was the custom. He always started the verbal fight, but pushed me in first when the fight was ready to start. I asked him, “Why me?” He used to say, “Because a Sulaiman never surrenders,” trying to threaten my pride and make my blood burn.

As a child, I was afraid even of the shadows of those today called “bullies,” until the time of a long story in grammar school when I beat the most aggressive kid, but he left my right eye totally closed with a punch. My mother tried to cure me with a steak, as the “comadres” said that it would do it. Jacinto then made a list of all those who had beaten me, without me even defending. My fights were almost daily until the vengeance was done, when we all became friends.

One day Jacinto invited me to a boxing show, and I went without money to pay for the ticket – I didn’t know that there was a ticket to be bought. They would let me in only if I accepted to fight in the “hors d’oeuvres,” fights that were a custom at the start of boxing promotions in the province of Mexico in the 40s and 50s, and even the 60s, when kids 10 to 13 years old used to fight a one-round match. Obviously Jacinto was my manager in the corner that I kept as a secret to my parents.

I only exchanged punches a couple of years as a child, and a couple more as an amateur. But that first evening, boxing came into my life, my mind, my heart, and my blood, and has remained there to this day. My dearest Jacinto was the one who introduced me to this volcanic sport where I have been 67 years of my life – may God have my compadre, Chinto, resting in everlasting peace, while I am still continuing in this volcano sport. I owe it to him to follow my destiny in boxing, which has given me the motivation to live with a commitment to serve the most needy, including accomplishments as well as errors.

It was during those years of adolescence and early youth when I learned of the abuses of boxers: without money to pay for their injuries; making a flyweight fight a featherweight fight; making boxers lose dangerous amounts of weight in inhumane ways; boxing fans shouting, “We want blood!,” boxers saying, “Victory or death;” promoters always expecting dramas for a better gate; ridiculous payments – enough to eat for only a couple of days – and many more inhuman actions that covered the sport with many highly detrimental conditions. All of those things made commissioners who are now affiliated with the WBC offer their best efforts to change the boxing of the past for the much more humane sport of today.

I would like to show, as an example of accomplishments that have taken boxing to its present heights, the great week end of September 17, when Mexican boxers followed their dreams on the days of the celebrations of the Mexican Independence – Jhonny González defending the featherweight world title tile by a knockout; Erik Morales winning his fourth undisputed WBC world championship – the only Mexican to have it done; the great performance of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez against his tough rival, Alfonso Gomez; and the great boxing demonstration of one of the greatest fighters of all times, Floyd Mayweather, in winning the green and gold belt from Victor Ortiz, who presented a valiant and courageous fight, but was defeated by his own inexperience.