On Saturday March 11, exactly one year of the sensible passing of Gilberto Mendoza, late President of the World Boxing Association (WBA) for more than three decades, the German-Ecuadorian WBA super welterweight champion, Jack Culcay, will defend his title against the North American Demetrius Andrade. The fight will take place at “Final Judgement” boxing event at the Ludwigshafen “Friedrich Ebert Halle”,Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, promoted by Sauerland Event, Broadcast live by ProSeibenMaxx. 

For this reason and as an earnest tribute, the champion Jack Culcay dedicates his Saturday fight to the memory of Dr. Gilberto Mendoza.

The fight between Culcay (22-1, 11 KO’s) vs. Andrade (23-0, 16 KO’s) had been tried to be arranged in two occasions, failing both times, before the WBA ordered a Purse Bid that Sauerland Events won.

The champion trained under the keen supervision of the famous German trainers Ulli Wegner and Georg Bramowski.

“We ran every morning for many miles. Then we did sparring, and worked on combinations”, said Culcay. “It is like a soccer player who always trains with a ball, to keep the distance. The more I work on my boxing, the better I get with the distance and that helps me greatly”.

The 29-year old Andrade is a very skillful southpaw. 

“I know I must be very careful walk to his left. Always to his left eliminating his right hand,” Culcay said.

Venezuela will be full of boxing from side to side to commemorate a year since the passing away of the President Emeritus of the World Boxing Association, Gilberto Mendoza, who died on March 11th last year.

From Monday, March 6th, most of the states in the country will have boxing bouts on what will be the First Gilberto Mendoza Festival, whose legacy is indelible. The opening will be held in Apure, Portuguesa, Monagas and Anzoátegui, where there will be amateur boxing supported by all local associations. On Tuesday it will be Mérida, Miranda, Trujillo and Delta Amacuro’s turn, while on Wednesday, Sucre, Vargas, Yaracuy and Carabobo will be the states designated to carry out the activities.

On Thursday, the fights will be in Guárico, Falcon, Nueva Esparta and Aragua and, on Friday, Bolivar, Lara, Barinas and Zulia will host the amateur fights with the support of different Venezuelan authorities.

The Saturday session, which will be the most important of all, will start with a mass at the Gimnasio Vertical Parque Codazzi at 10:00 am local time. At noon, the Gilberto Mendoza Boxing Hall will be officially inaugurated, in which the family of the leader will be present. Meanwhile, at 5 pm, another Mass will be celebrated, this time at the Yesterday  Recreation Center, a special place for Dr. Mendoza and where the history of boxing in his country has written some of its best pages.

A professional boxing card, organized by the company Promociones Morón Contreras, will top off this set of commemorative activities. In this program at the Yesterday, great boxers as Johan Pérez, Iván Matute and Alexis Díaz will be fighting.