Report by Pepe Rodriguez/WBC
Photos by Tito Gonzalez/WBC
Yesterday, in an emotional ceremony attended by the president of the Chinese Boxing Federation, Liu Tao, and the Vicepresidents of the World Boxing Council, China has affiliated to the WBC. Certainly a very important event for the sport of boxing since big surprises from the Chinese fighters are expected.
General Kovid Bhakdibumi, after welcoming those present, expressed the importance to have Chinese boxing worldwide and recognized the quality of its fighters.
During the meeting, in a luxurious lounge of the Yanan Hotel in Shanghai, homage was paid to our dear president Don Jose Sulaiman with a beautiful video that showed interesting passages of his life, not only in boxing, but also related to his family.
At the end of the event, WBC Vice President Houcine Houichi, read the proclamation in which China was affiliated to our organization, one of the most important events in the history of boxing.
Thus, this great country will give a new direction to this great sport trying to meet or perhaps exceed the shows in Japan, Thailand and South Korea, among other Eastern countries.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
