WBC Boss recommends legends should quit.

By James Blears

World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman is urging Tommy Hearns, Evander Holyfield, Julio Cesar Chavez, Roy Jones, Manuel Medina, Kostya Tszyu and Fernando Vargas to hand up their gloves NOW.

Their fantastic individual achievements have written glorious pages and etched indelible memories in the vivid history boxing.  But Don Jose is arguing that their time is now up and they should retire to enjoy what’s left of a middle age, and to look forward to a healthy and productive old age.

A crusader for greater safety in Boxing, Don Jose is concerned rather than cross. He said of Tommy Hearns:

“Tommy Hearns should not continue in boxing. He’s older than Evander Holyfield. He has had his time. He has won many titles and he is not absolutely physically in that condition to come back to boxing.

“In regards to Evander Holyfield.  I believe he should also retire. The problem with Evander is that the heavyweight division today is so…let’s call it mediocre…that he thinks that by coming back he can still make a good couple of dollars. But the preservation of his health and the care of his life should win over anything else.

“Julio Cesar Chavez is retired. Really, what he is doing is nothing but ten round fights with some boxers that will not give him serious concern. My serious concern was when it was announced that Top Rank was thinking of having Chavez V Gatti, and that is absolutely inhuman and inappropriate. I don’t believe that Top Rank would do something like that. And I don’t believe either that Arturo Gatti would accept it.

“I think Kostya Tszyu is mentally retired. I don’t think he went to fight in England with the winner’s championship mentality of his past. He was one of the greatest super lightweight fighters that I ever saw in my life, and I will remember him like that.

“Roy Jones suffered two consecutive knockouts, and I as a friend and admirer, (feel) that he should not fight unless he takes a neurological examination. And that examination approves him to continue fighting. I’ve just heard that he has announced that he an examination in his hometown. If that is so, and he’s approved God bless him. But as a friend, I strongly believe and recommend to him that he retire from active boxing. He can do a lot of things, has a lot of money and he has a good name. So he has to preserve all of those things.”

“With Manuel Medina, he is a bright nice person. I like him very much. He has because of the style of his boxing, not often been hit solidly. But he has been too long a time in boxing.

“And with Fernando Vargas…look! Fernando is a very courageous Mexican. He is very proud of his Mexican blood and his Mexican heart. And he knows that he was a great fighter. But things happened in his life. He has had a back problem and came back, more pressured by the business of boxing than himself. He couldn’t make the weight where he was good.  He’s now fighting as a middleweight, and he doesn’t look good. They brought him down to one hundred and fifty four pounds in his last fight and he looked very fragile, weak and slow, no combinations, his mind was not there. I think that a good person that Fernando respects, should come close to him and really tell him. You should go into a full, thorough medical examination of your body, your back- everything. And if you want to come back you have to do it under absolute, unquestionable medical approval. And only at the weight he can be at his best. Otherwise he should not continue boxing.”

Don Jose confided that the Age Concern theme will be a key part of his opening speech at the forthcoming WBC Convention and he wanted to keep his formal recommendation in reserve until then. But he did stress:

“I believe this is a signal of a crisis of major dimensions in boxing. We don’t have many more heroes. They are going. So we need something new. We have to take a new path. We have to bring the mental attitude of the people of boxing to the reality of the times. They are trying to live in the past. And if they do, and they continue working the way that they are, boxing will not live more than fifty years.”