THE Philippines will have more active participation in the World Boxing Council (WBC) following the appointment of chairman Baham Mitra of the Games and Amusement Board to the powerful Board of Governors of the world’s oldest and most prestigious boxing organization.
No less than re-elected WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman of Mexico announced the appointment of Mitra as International Secretary and the board seat that goes with it during the recent WBC Convention in Florida, USA.
‘I am very thankful for the trust given to us by the WBC. We now have two Filipino boxing officials in the WBC and this means that Filipino boxers and promoters will have bigger voice in the world boxing body,” Mitra told Manila Standard on Thursday (December 22).
The other Filipino official in the WBC board seat is former GAB chairman Juan Ramon Guanzon, who retained his post as president of the Orient Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF).
Mitra, who attended his first WBC convention, was one of the few boxing officials from all over the world who were allowed to speak at the podium.
He praised the reelection of the Sulaiman, who was acknowledged for his generous support to Philippine boxing. One of the founding fathers of the WBC was a Filipino—the late Rudy Salud, who was also former Philippine Basketball Association commissioner.
Mitra extended his invitation to Sulaiman to grace the OPBF convention which the Philippines is hosting in October, 2017 in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.
“We want to have a very meaningful and game-changing convention for participants in Asia and the Pacific. And we would like to have Mr. Sulaiman to be there,” said Mitra.
In an effort to make the Philippines a major player in world boxing, Mitra also announced his bid to host the WBC Convention in 2018. “We are bidding to host the WBC convention in 2018 with India as the other bidder. I’m confident that we would be given another chance to host it.”
The 2017 convention will take place in Kazakhstan.
The Philippines was represented in the Florida Convention by Mitra, Guanzon, GAB boxing division chief Dr. Nasser Cruz and some Filipino boxing promoters including Brico Santig, who has been very active in promoting WBC in Asia.
“This is very good development as we look ahead to coming year for boxing. We really look forward to a very promising year for our Filipino boxers,” said the WBC Asia promoter of the year awardee.