The 28th annual WBO Convention kicked off this morning in Orlando Florida in front of a near capacity crowd at the Hilton Hotel conference room. The event kicked off at 8:30 AM with members from around the world taking time to introduce themselves to each other, the opening ceremony, and the invocation before Secretary Jose Izquierdo gave his report on the NABO and WBO Intercontinental. Although the agenda originally scheduled for the President?s Report to kick off the event, the committee agreed to shake things up somewhat to allow President Valcarcel to make his presentation in the afternoon.
For Secretary Izquierdo and the NABO, 2015 proved to be another successful year since its change in leadership in 2014. Under Izquierdo the NABO has seen unprecedented growth thanks in part to a successful ?re-branding? campaign that has given the NABO a new life and a new role in the organization. In 2014 the NABO sanctioned 12 fights for the NABO title and 18 fights for the WBO Intercontinental title and saw its rebranding initiative produce rapid and tangible results. Notable a new webpage, a new logo, and a new NABO championship belt design have raised the profile and the appeal of the NABO. Izquierdo was pleased to announce that the NABO sanctioned fights on the undercard of some of the biggest fights of the year including the ?fight of the century? between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather as well as the undercard of the Gennady Golovkin versus David Lemieux fight earlier this month.
?To make our brand more recognizable, we have continued to stress the importance of having high-level regional fights at important cards.? Izquierdo added.
Since the last convention the NABO has increased its presence in boxing to the tune of 22 sanctioned NABO title fights and 32 sanctioned WBO Intercontinental title fights. Despite an impressive increase of 83% in activity for the NABO since 2014, Izquierdo felt that the NABO still had room to grow.
?30 is a good target.? Izquierdo said of his goals for 2016.
Izquierdo also touted the role the NABO and WBO Intercontinental played in grooming future champions of the world.
?Two WBO Intercontinental champions became world champions in 2015,? Izquierdo said before citing the role the NABO and WBO Intercontinental have in molding future world title challengers.
Financially the NABO and WBO Intercontinental also proved successful. As of August 31, 2015 the NABO earned $59,725 in sanctioning fees (compared to $46,360 at the same time last year) and has $70,962 in cash at hand (compared to $58,819 at the same tie last year). The WBO Intercontinental earned an impressive $426,311 in sanctioning fees as of August 31 (compared to $418,927 on August 31, 2014) and has cash in hand in the amount of $342,458 (compared to $195,293 last year).
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The second report to follow was the WBO Treasurer?s Report by Adolfo Flores. Mr. Flores noted that although the WBO?s cash at hand dropped (from $196,000 last year to $164,000) that the organization remains ?solid.? The WBO engaged in more strenuous collections and noted that some of the lower revenue (from $389,000 to $175,000) was due to the liquidation of some debt and the release of funds in escrow accounts. Mr. Flores also pointed out the fact that Manny Pacquiao?s injury caused WBO sanctioning fees to drop since he was primarily inactive in 2015. He reiterated that the WBO remained financially solid and then discussed the expenses regarding the WBO Kids Drug Free Program and the amount claimed as contributions from those fighters and individuals working with Kids Drug Free. However, the numbers cited did raise some questions as some members felt that the WBO was shortchanging itself on the amount claimed as contributions. President Valcarcel asked for a ?benchmark? to be set as to how to quantify a charitable contribution. In the end Mr. Flores?s report was accepted citing a possible change in regards to the issue of quantifying charitable contributions.
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From there the convention continued with WBO Vice President Istvan ?Koko? Kovacs?s report on WBO Europe. Kovacs noted that of the 16 WBO champions, eight were European. WBO oversaw 57 regional fights in Europe, including 27 WBO European championship fights. The WBO Europe remained a highly prolific organization in its own right, with Kovacs noting that there have been 117 WBO European championship fights in the last 68 months and in 5 ? years the organizations has generated $418,820.
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Vice President Jorge Molina followed up with his report on WBO Latino. Although Latin America has been dealing with upheaval in the political sense all over the region, the WBO Latino has remained successful. Molina oversaw 35 WBO Latino fights in 2015, its biggest number since 2012 and a 22% increase of the number of fights from 2014. This was all the more notable considering the fact that the boxing scene in Brazil had slowed to a near trickle. Molina also noted that since 1996 the WBO Latino has seen 558 fighters fight for its belt, and of that number 149 have gone on to fight for a world title.
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From there Markus Aslani gave his report on the state of WBO Women?s boxing. Alsani was honest in citing his growing concern over the cost of sanctioning fees of the WBO as opposed to other sanctioning organizations and noted the difficulty of small market promoters in getting the necessary funds to cover those fees when trying to promoter a championship fight featuring their fighters.
?I appreciate that the WBO is very critical of the quality of opponents,? Alsani added, before admitting that ?it is a struggle to make WBO female bigger.?
Alsani requested lowering the sanctioning fees for female fighters before moving the discussion to a fighter who has given the WBO a much needed boost in women?s boxing: popular Costa Rican super welterweight champion Hanna Gabriel. Noting that Gabriel has emerged as a superstar in her native Costa Rica, Alsani stated that he would love? to have Gabriel fight in Europe. It was also noted the role Argentina had in developing women?s boxing with the WBO.
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After lunch the convention continued with Mr. Luis Batista Salas?s presentation of the WBO Championship Committee Report. Salas pulled no punches as he immediately discussed some of the WBO?s more controversial moves in 2015. ?We have been challenged,? Salas said firmly, ?nothing is harder than the truth. We have to maintain discipline. We have to defend our institution.?
Salas noted that during the year they had petitions filed by some of the mot recognizable fighters in the world such as Marco Huck, but in the end the WBO had to fall back on their rules and bylaws.
?During the year we had to make a decision by Marco Huck that he believed he should have a return fight,? Salas added, ?and on August 5th we had another request (from one of our champions) a return fight.?
In both instances the WBO held firm to their rules, earning respect from those in boxing. But nothing raised more attention in 2015 that the WBO?s decision to strip Floyd Mayweather of his belt after he defeated Manny Pacquiao.
Having been required to vacate his belt in a higher weight class, Mayweather?s refusal left the WBO only two choices: ignore the rules and collect a substantial sanctioning fee in Mayweather?s next fight or enforce the rules and show the world that everyone is treated equally in the WBO.
?We had to take a decision that nobody in boxing believed we would take,? Salas said of the WBO?s decision to strip Mayweather of his title, ?We had to do it. We didn?t want to do it. But he didn?t want to comply with the rules. And nobody is bigger than the institution.?
Salas admitted that he didn?t like to strip fighters of their championship belts, but he noted the importance of enforcing the rules.
?A champion shouldn?t lose his title on a desk,? Salas said, ?He should lose it fighting.?
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The Grievance Committee Report by Alberto Rodriguez followed, discussing the challenges to WBO decisions and how the WBO handled these grievances.
?We are very proud of the transparency of all of our decisions and our due process,? Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez discussed the appeals filed by both Chris Algieri (who had his title vacated for moving up in weight) and Demetrius Andrade (who lost his title due to inactivity). Both fighters took advantage of the appeas process and although the final decisions went against both fighters, Rodriguez noted that both fighters were ?satisfied? with the process.
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The next report came from Vice President Leon Panoncillo who made his report on the WBO Asia-Pacific, the WBO Oriental, the WBO International, the WBO Africa and most notably his major strides in getting the WBO to take off in China. Mr. Panoncillo first discussed the history of the WBO Asia Pacific, which was founded in 1995, before handing the floor to WBO referee Danrex Tapdasan who discussed the role Panoncillo and the WBO had in the sudden growth of the Professional Boxing Commission in China. Ever since China ended its ban on professional boxing it has been seen as a lucrative market, and through the hard work of Panoncillo and other members of the WBO Asia-Pacific, the WBO had finally broke into that market. The PBCC (Professional Boxing Commission of China) was formed, opening the door for the WBO to work with the Chinese government. Modeling its rules after the ABC rules, PBC China was a strong partner for WBO and has subsequently licensed thirteen boxing events in Macau. Setting a strong foundation based on professionalism has helped the WBO make unprecedented inroads in professional boxing in China this year. After years of seeing the WBO China Zone project struggle to make inroads into China, it was clear that the hard work and dedication of Paboncillo and WBO member Danny Leigh was finally paying off for the WBO.
One of the most exciting projects that the WBO had was the ?League of Fists? tournament: A developmental boxing program that featured dozens of Chinese fighters in a tournament of four round fights. The League of Fists was a grassroots boxing program that has already created a major buzz in China, where the eventual winner will be crowned with a WBO Great China belt. Although a regional belt, it will allow the winner the opportunity to crack into the WBO rankings and fight for a high level belt (such as the WBO China National title) down the line.
From there Mr. Panoncillo moved onto the continued growth of WBO Asia Pacific, which had a positive growth in 2015 with 10 additional sanctioned fights from last year during the same time period. Since the last convention the WBO Asia-Pacific sanctioned 30 bouts, raising $45,350 in sanctioning fees.
The WBO Oriental sanctioned 27 matches, generating $51,398.24 since the last convention. Panoncillo also noted that there were an additional five fights scheduled before years end. Panoncillo also took over stewardship of the WBO Africa in 2014, and Panoncillo noted that even though he was based the Pacific, WBO Africa still sanctioned 11 fights since last year?s convention, bringing in revenue of $28,805.06 in revenue. Panoncillo also noted that he was working closely with a recently appointed member from Ghana, Mr. Samir Captan. Captan os a former head boxing commissioner who will be a tremendous asset to the WBO as it looks to expand beyond southern Africa and into West Africa.
Panoncillo then discussed the WBO Asia Pacific Youth, noting that it was still a ?hard sell? in getting it to grow. Overall Panoncillo oversaw three Youth titles (the same number as last year?s convention) bringing in $3,350 in revenue.
WBO International continued to grow, with Panioncillo describing it as another ?tremendous? year for the International championship. Since January 1 Panoncillo oversaw 13 WBO International championships (as well as three from November of ast year to January 1). In total, the WBO International raised $141,948.36 since last years convention.
Rounding off his presentation, Mr. Panoncillo noted that WBO Asia Pacific raised $3,600 in fees for female fights and WBO China National raised $2,900 in new revenue. The WBO Great China/League of Fist tournament has thus far raised $3,200 in revenue. In total, Mr. Panoncillo oversaw total revenue coming into the WBO in the amount of $280,551.66, a number that earned high praise from many of the other members of the WBO.
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The next report of the day came from the classification committee chairman Luis Perez. Perez discussed the upcoming WBO Ratings committee meeting scheduled for Thursday, assuring members that all promoters will have an opportunity to speak.
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Finally, President Paco Valcarcel gave the President?s report. Valcarcel turned the floor over to attorney Antonio Roman, who discussed several issues that the WBO was dealing with in the legal sense. First Mr. Roman discussed the possible infringement on their trademark with the attempted registration of an entity called NABOO (which Roman and the WBO felt unfairly infringed on the NABO trademark). Although the situation had yet to be resolved, Roman expressed confidence that the WBO would be up for whatever challenge presented itself regarding the dispute. He then discussed several fraud schemes that had been ?neutralized? before briefly discussing a civil suit involving an unnamed promoter (who was the plaintiff in the suit). No details were given in regards to the civil suit. President Valcarcel then discussed the issue regarding the dispute over the WBO?s tax exempt status in Puerto Rico (where the government denied their tax exempt status, despite the fact that the WBO has federal tax exempt status) before explaining the WBO?s plan to re-file the application for tax exempt status with the Puerto Rican government invoking the federal tax exempt status. President Valcarcel then went on to discuss something that was very close to his heart: The WBO Kids Drug Free Program. A short video followed and Valcarcel introduced two young men who began boxing in juvenile detention facilities before turning their lives around thanks in large part due to the work of the WBO Kids Drug Free and the WBO?s efforts to train incarcerated young men and boys in boxing as a means to change their lives. The visibly moved WBO executive committee gave the two young men (aged 21 and 16) a standing ovation to close out the opening days events.
Before releasing the members, President Valcarcel told the members in attendance that the WBO would make a decision tomorrow morning on the status of Guillermo Rigondeaux?s WBO title tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM.
