Mauricio Sulaiman
WBC president and son of Jose Sulaiman
Last Saturday, I experienced an unexpected turn of events and had the opportunity to assess how boxing has been viewed, experienced and lived from different perspectives.
I was born into a house where boxing has been going on for as long as I can remember. People involved in this sport have always stayed home. My first memory is when I was on the top floor of the house and heard an unusual harabaloo in the living room one day. I ran downstairs to see what was going on and found my father standing there with his two giant men. None other than Don King and Muhammad Ali. The brawl was caused by King’s famous gaffour.
Sulaimans has always been a baseball player. The four brothers played in the Lindavista League. At the end of each season, at the closing ceremony and awards ceremony, I remember his father always inviting the champions to present the trophies. José Mantequilla Napoles, Rubén Puas Olivarez, Raul Laton Macias, Miguelcanto and others.
Sulaiman’s four brothers also train in boxing at home. Also Carlos Zarate, Lupe Pintor and Jose Luis Bueno. I dreamed of becoming a boxer. I was pretending to be in a boxing match and playing alone, punching myself and bleeding myself to make it more realistic. My sister Claudia was in my corner and gave me water during my imaginary break. After a bloody battle with Armando Muniz in Acapulco, my dream came to an abrupt end when his father took me to the dressing room of his idol, Mantequilla Napoles. and split eyebrows. So I told Don Jose that I wanted to be a firefighter instead.
Coming home from school afterwards, it was common to find countless boxing personalities eating in the dining room. Roberto Durán, Alexis Arguello, Sugar Ray Leonard… Managers and trainers also came to introduce him to new talent. People who started and came to live in our house, amateur boxers from rural areas who had no chance found a home in our house so they could pursue their dreams .
I grew up and understood boxing life better. Not only in Las Vegas, New York and Los Angeles, but also in small arenas in various locations in Mexico and other countries. That’s the essence and essence of boxing. It’s a sport where only the passion, dedication and performance of those who aspire to improve their lives and become idols matter. Everyone starts at rock bottom and it takes a lot of sacrifices to get there one day.
I learned everything from being by my father’s side. His deep love and respect for the sport and, above all, his admiration for boxers is unmatched by anyone else in the history of boxing. Administratively, he changed many things to end the abuse and became more and more successful after many years in the ring. Educating them to provide a better life and establishing a support fund for those with urgent needs.The Jose Sulaiman Boxers Fund is managed by the Nevada Community Foundation.
Since I was a child, I have lived with everyone involved in this great sport every day: promoters, managers, coaches, lawyers, commissioners, doctors, judges, referees, ring announcers, spars. ring partner, television executive and sponsor. And most of all, with Boxer and his family. I thought the cycle was already complete, but as I commented at the beginning, something was missing. My youngest son, Mauricio, found boxing something that I always admire.
The pandemic has taken a toll on him, including virtual classes, confinement, and lack of interaction with friends. It led him to mental health issues and depression. At that time my nephew Chepi came into his life and started teaching boxing. He approached the sport with respect and enthusiasm and it became his passion. Taking him to dear former champion Jose Luis Bueno’s gym in Nezha this Saturday, Morito entered the ring for his first sparring session. Alan, who stepped into the ring to spar with his son, arrived with his grandmother and his mother. Both are 16 years old and the same height and weight. They warmed up and then jumped rope together until it was time to step into the ring.
I got to go through it and feel how the family would feel when the bell rang and his loved ones were there and exchanged blows. Those were two great rounds . Enhanced by all the training sessions they taught him from day one, it eventually became a reality in the ring. The first thing the young man did was melt into the embrace of the pure nobility of the sport. They quickly took off their headgear and embraced each other. No one told them to do so.
Mexico is off to a great start in 2023. Yesika Neriplata defeated former champion Kim Clavell in Canada to show class, determination and courage to dominate the 10-round fight to clinch his WBC Light flyweight world championship.
WBC and unified light heavyweight champion Arthur Betrbiev will make his WBO mandatory defense against Anthony Yard in London next Saturday.
On February 11, reigning WBC World Featherweight Champion Ray Vargas will seek to become world champion in three weight classes as he battles for the Super Featherweight Championship against USA’s Oshakey Foster. There’s a lot of activity on our calendar and we’re all waiting for an announcement to come soon.
Do you know…?
The great idol of Mexico, Ruben Puas Olivarez, created a foundation in his name to bring joy and inspiration to thousands of children by handing out toys with children and visiting their neighborhoods. , spending time on bringing hope. There is nothing better than getting a child’s bright smile. El Puas has achieved that as a fundamental part of his life. Give your child a toy. You can always…
anecdote of the day
One of the most important rules of boxing is to change the weigh-in from the same day to the day before. One such example was El Puas Olivares. My father told me the story of when he was fighting hard to reach the bantamweight limit when he was about to fight in Mexicali, one of the hottest cities in the world…he had a sore throat. I woke up in the middle of the night with thirst and wet my lips and couldn’t stop until I had a jug of water. He woke up the next morning to find himself five pounds over his limit. They wrapped him in plastic and his three pairs of trousers and had to put him in a heated car in the hot sun all day. He gained weight and won the fight, but he didn’t remember a single second of the day.
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