Round 12 with Mauricio Sulaimàn: Grand Muay Thai event in Verona
By Mauricio Sulaimán
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 03 Jul 2025
The second stage of my long journey has ended, and I am now off to Turkey to continue with the great plans of the World Boxing Council.
The World Muay Thai Boxing festival took place in beautiful Verona, Italy. It was three days of competition at the highest level of quality and intensity in the world of Muay Thai. There were 948 fights across six rings with fighters from over 90 countries in a variety of categories, from children to elite in both women’s and men’s divisions.
The Mexican delegation was very well represented, and good results continue under the leadership of Julio Gamboa at the helm of WBC Muay Thai Mexico.
The World Boxing council started the Muay Thai committee at the express request of the beloved King Bhumibol Rama IX, who suffered seeing how the ancient discipline born in his kingdom was grotesquely distorted around the world, with pseudo-sports called martial arts showing no respect for the greatness of the culture and art behind a sport with ancient heritage.
This coming December, we will be celebrating our annual convention in Bangkok, Thailand, and it will be a grand celebration where we will unite boxing and Muay Thai for the first time, coming together for this universal summit.
Well, the fight that generated expectations and a great diversity of opinions among our sport’s fans, and with the bandwagoners who follow boxing on social media when famous influencers are involved, has now taken place.
My dear Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. lost by unanimous decision to Jake Paul. I couldn’t watch the fight due to the time difference, but comments in the media and on social networks say it was a one-sided fight, with much criticism of Julio’s lack of activity, and that aligns with the judges’ scorecards which unanimously gave the first seven rounds to Paul.
This was Chavez Jr.’s last chance to do something in boxing, and I hope he makes the decision to hang up his gloves. I am very proud to know that he is well and has been clear pf addictions for over a year, and I ask God to help him continue this way.
Jake Paul wants to become a world champion, and winning this fight was a good step forward. Now what he needs is to continue with fights against boxers, ideally facing a world-ranked fighter to end so much speculation.
Canada had a lot of WBC activity this past weekend. Christian Mbilli knocked out the experienced Maciej Sulecki in one round, thus winning the WBC interim super middleweight championship. The Pole Michal Cieslak surprised the world by knocking out former local world champion Jean Pascal in four rounds to win the interim cruiserweight title; now he must fight the Argentinian Yamil Peralta.
Last Tuesday, the new interim world flyweight champion, Francisco “Chihuas” Rodriguez, received the belt he had so longed for and yearned for throughout his career. As he caressed it and closely observed its design, he exclaimed: “This is what I aspired to since I was a child, this was my big dream, to win it and make it mine!” It took 10 years for him to conquer a world title again. Now that he has it, he says he must work harder because he wants to be the undisputed champion of our organization. From Monterrey, “Chihuas” is aware that fights will now be more difficult for him and accepts the challenge this implies.
DID YOU KNOW…?
The King of Thailand asked my father for Muay Thai to be supervised by the World Boxing Council, because this sport was losing its essence, and our WBC could help ensure it didn’t lose its roots and remained as it is conceived in Thailand with its original rules. Don Jose accepted and took on the challenge. Muay Thai continues with its original traditions and is monitored to ensure it maintains the essence with which it was born in this land, where it is a popular sport with all that it implies.
ANECDOTE OF THE DAY
Don Jose considered Thailand a second home because he made great friends in that country and was received on several occasions by the King of Thailand. On his tours, which lasted several months through different countries to attend to World Boxing Council matters, one of his stops in the East was always this country. He used to joke that he already had his house there, which was the Peninsula Hotel, as a guest in room 114. That was Don Jose… He was very passionate about that country.
I appreciate your comments: contact@wbcboxing.com
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Mauricio Sulaimán.
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