By Pablo Freight and Ludo Saenz in Cartagena, notifight.com
On Monday, the World Boxing Organization (WBO), chaired by their prominent Puerto Rican leader Francisco Valcarcel, their 23rd Annual Convention, with the traditional golf tournament and a cocktail reception that was enjoyed by the conventioneers at the Hotel Caribe, located in the heart of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in the Caribbean.
Since the weekend, participants at the 23rd convention made their arrival in Cartagena, to attend the all day golf tournament. And as a recognition from the local organizing committee, all participants received awards for the golf tournament.
At the cocktail hour, one by one, the participants received awards that were made beautiful by the hands of a prominent Colombian craftsman. Noting the participants - Eric Gomez, Gino Rodriguez, Glen Feldman, Istvan "Koko" Kovacs, Joe Cortez, Mark Reels, Adolfo Flores, Gino Rodriguez, Michael Pernick, Ruddy Paz, Tom Miller, Jaime Cebollero, Rocky John and Felix Tutico" Zabala.
Also receiving awards were members of the Organizing Committee of the Convention in Colombia, highlighted by president Jose "Pepe" Castillo, who last year made the request to hold the convention in Colombia at the gathering in Budapest, Hungary, and achieved his aim by moving the entire family of the WBO to Cartagena .
The organizers also recognized a number of players who stood out throughout the day, but special recognition was given to the overall winners of the golf tournament: Junior Rivera, chairman of the event and came in first place.
Castillo surpassed Valcárcel and Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions company, who were located in the second and third positions respectively.
On the opening day of the annual convention, it was attended by a number of international promoters such as Peter Rivera of Puerto Rico Best Boxing, Felix "Tutico" ZaBala of All Star Boxing, Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions, and Hector Garcia of HG Boxing, to name a few.
Referees were also present, Joe Cortez, Jay Nady, Jose H. Rivera, the representative of the WBO in Mexico Rafael López Santos, Mexican journalists Cesar Ceron, Ernesto Castellanos, Roberto Santos, along with a number of Panamanian journalists such as Juan Carlos Tapia, Daniel Alonso, Hector Villarreal, who is also a promoter, and Gustavo Ampudia.
With the implementation of the convention with the golf tournament and cocktail gathering, everyone was ready to get to work for the rest of the week in the main rooms of the Caribbean Hotel and BoxingScene.com/NotiFight.com will be reporting during the course of each day.