Round 12 with Mauricio Sulaimàn: Unforgettable Moments with the Champions
By Mauricio Sulaimán
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 05 Aug 2025
This past week was full of emotional moments and great closeness with several champions.
This is something I always enjoyed about my father—seeing his closeness to the boxers, those intimate moments, that are forever etched in memory. This is one of the most important factors in the success of our World Boxing Council. The sincere friendship, closeness, and eternal relationship with the fighters. This is something that all members of the WBC share as principles and values, we all are always there for the boxers, before, during and specially after their years of glory in the ring.
The Fundora family returned to Mexico, to their home, for our traditional weekly press conference “Martes de Cafe”. Everyone who attended that great event at the IBH headquarters, hosted by our friend Luis Menéndez, had a wonderful day. It was a special “Martes de Cafe; Held on a terrace on a beautiful, sunny day. We celebrated the careers of two ring greats, the Fundora siblings: Gabriela, who is the undisputed flyweight champion, and Sebastian, who is the WBC super welterweight champion. Their father, Freddy, and youngest daughter Fabiola were also there; Fabiola, interestingly, made her amateur debut last Friday in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl at the Marbet hall of Chiquita González.
Sebastian received the “Aztec Warrior II” belt, recognizing his tremendous battle against Tim Tszyu on July 19th, an honor he shares with Manny Pacquiao.
At the close of the ceremony, a mariachi band arrived, and we enjoyed a celebration that sent us all home very happy. The Fundoras boarded the Turibus with the mariachi band, friends, and the press to tour our great Mexico City, proudly showing off their belts. The final stop was to enjoy the delights of Mexican food at the Cuchilleros restaurant, where escamoles, breaded steak tacos, and roasted suckling pig captivated the attendees. Another great virtue of this incredible family is music, and the three children, along with their dad, gave it their all at karaoke.
I traveled to Puerto Rico, the “Isle of Enchantment,” where memories filled my mind and a great feeling accompanied me throughout my stay. I had dinner with my friend Gustavo Olivieri, President of the WBO, who showed me wonderful hospitality. One of my father´s favorite song is “My Viejo San Juan" and such played on my mind all throughout the entire trip.
We officially presented the WBC world championship belt to the Puerto Rico star Subriel Matías at the government house, called La Fortaleza, where the Governor of Puerto Rico honored us with her presence. Jennifer González led the event, accompanied by the leader of the House of Representatives, the Minister of Sports, and other personalities. Our great champion Juan Laporte, as well as our representative in Puerto Rico, Edgardo Lopez Sazzo, were part of the committee. On the champion’s side, his wife, his two beautiful daughters, his promoter Juan Orengo, his manager, and his trainer, Nelson Adams, were all there. Adams also received his trainer’s belt, an award created by Don José to recognize those who successfully crown a WBC champion.
Subriel recalled how we met in February 2020 when expressed his great desire to become a WBC champion, and at that moment, I gave him a commemorative coin, telling him that I was giving it to him to one day trade for the Green and Gold Belt.. Subriel, who was a great prospect, suffered two defeats, and that day he recounted that looking at that coin was what inspired him to keep going, and his dream finally came true. He also took the opportunity to announce his next dream: to fight against “Pitbull” Cruz to be part of the great battles of the ancestral rivalry between Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Other great moments of the trip included receiving several video calls from three new champions who achieved glory:
First, the call from the Mexican Ricardo Sandoval, who dethroned the great Japanese champion Kenshiro Teraji in a heroic feat. Then, our new mini flyweight champion, the Venezuelan Carlos Cañizales, who defeated Panya Pradabsri in a dramatic fight by knockout in the fifth round after getting up from a knockdown in the fourth. This was the first world championship fight in that country since a defense made by Jorge Linares in 2015. It was an unforgettable event with great fights, an unbeatable ESPN Knockout production, and also the inaugural broadcast of their signal in the United States. A day later, I received another video call from the new WBC Silver champion, the Venezuelan Yerny Betancourt, who defeated the Mexican Miguel Moreno on Saturday, also in Venezuela.
Did you know…
Puerto Rico is the country that has produced the most world champions per capita—it is a land of champions. Sixto Escobar was the first in the 1930s. Legends of the ring include Carlos Ortiz, Alfredo Escalera, Esteban de Jesús, Juan Laporte, Wilfredo Benitez, Wilfredo Gómez, Hector “Macho” Camacho, and Edwin “Chapo” Rosario, in addition to the great Miguel Cotto and Félix “Tito” Trinidad, among others. The rivalry against Aztec fighters at its most intense, when. Wilfredo Gómez knocked out 13 Mexican boxers, including the undefeated Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor, but the great Salvador Sánchez came to the rescue, knocking out Gómez at Caesars Palace in 1982. “Macho” Camacho defeated José Luis Ramírez and several other Mexicans, but Julio César Chávez defeated him in one of the great nights of Mexican boxing. In short, it is a fact that when a fight between Puerto Ricans and Aztecs is announced, the public knows it will be an epic war in the ring.
Today’s Anecdote…
Puerto Rico was a country very dear to my father. One of his best friends for life was Yamil Chade, the beloved “Baron.” He was a boxing agent born in Cuba and established on the island. Yamil dyed his hair, and in Aruba, during the first medical congress, something happened that my dad loved to tell us about.
“It turns out that Yamil was an eternal romantic, always a heartthrob and a conqueror. In Aruba, he went for a swim after flirting with a lady who was sunbathing. As he got out of the pool, walking all suave, black drops started to run down his face and chest—his hair dye was all washing off! We were all laughing, and poor Yamil didn’t understand until he started to dry himself off and realized what had happened.”
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Click here to view a list of other articles written by Mauricio Sulaimán.
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