By Miguel Rivera
After qualifying 2018 as a spectacular year for boxing, the president of the World Boxing Council (WBC), Mauricio Sulaiman, made it known that in 2019 the main objective will be to place a focus on the issue of weight control.
Sulaiman does not like the ongoing problem of boxers sucking down weight during fight week - leading to severe health problems for several boxers.
"In 2019, we are going with everything to handle the issue of weight management, which is our main concern. We passed a cycle where the process of a 30 day and seven day weigh-in is not enough. He recalled that just two weeks ago in New York, Canada's David Lemieux was severely dehydrated while trying to make the weight limit of 160-pounds and he was taken to the hospital - which canceled a planned fight with Tureano Johnson," Sulaiman said.
Sulaiman is planning several different tactics to ensure boxers are not cutting as much as 10 pounds prior to the weigh-in.
"We will implement several measures, different surprise exams on boxers regardless of where they are and even before they enter the ring, when they reach the arena, to control the weight," said Sulaiman.
On the other hand, he highlighted that unified middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and WBC, WBO, WBA, IBF cruiserweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk are the main candidates for the top prize within the yearly awards of the sanctioning body, although they will wait for the final incumbents of the year to define the winner, which will be known in the first weeks of January.
And regarding the Mexican boxers in line for top awards, he commented that the "Canelo" (middleweight champion WBC-WBA and "regular" super middleweight WBA) is the main figure, along with champions like Miguel "Alacrán" Berchetl (super featherweight WBA) and Rey Vargas (super bantamweight).
