by Ronnie Nathanielsz
World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman has announced that the WBC Board of Governors will meet in Mexico City on May 28-29 “to review the organization if the first Professional Boxing World Cup.”
There have been similarly oriented programs in the past with the World Cup of Boxing between Mexico and Thailand promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in Tucson, Arizona on October 29, 2005.
Considered one of the better overall cards of that year, the World Cup featured four WBO world title bouts with the Mexicans winning all four bouts and the handsome trophy by a margin of 5-1.
A similar World Cup of Boxing clash took place between the Philippines and Mexico at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California in August 2007 which the Philippines won 5-1 highlighted Gerry Penalosa’s sensational 8th round knockout of Jhonny Gonzalez to win the WBO bantamweight title.
The Philippine boxers were trained by Freddie Roach.
Under the WBC plan the 165 affiliated countries in the WBC who are part of the ten continental federations in Europe, Africa, Asia, North, Central and South America as well as the British Community will be represented during the World Cup by champions of each federation in eight different weight divisions.
The WBC said the World Cup will be broadcast internationally and will be promoted by the same professional promoters of the World Boxing Council.
