Boxing Superstar and Unified Middleweight World Champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin was officially presented with his World Boxing Council title belt by WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman in Mexico City on Saturday, July 9.
Joining Golovkin and Sulaiman at the ceremony attended by a huge contingent of local media were K2 Promotions’ Tom Loeffler, Golovkin’s longtime trainer Abel Sanchez, manager Oleg Hermann and Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Mexico Andrian Yelemessov.
Also joining Golovkin at the ceremony was recent Hall of Fame inductee Lupe Pintor along with other boxing greats Carlos Zarate, Rafael Marquez, Humberto “Chiquita” Gonzalez, Rafael Herrera, Francisco “Bandido” Vargas, Ganigan Lopez and Alejandro “Tigre” Jimenez.
“It was great to be back in Mexico, I feel like it’s a second home for me,” said Golovkin who also visited ESPN Deportes for a televised interview. “It was an honor for me to personally get my WBC title from Mauricio Sulaiman.”
Said Loeffler, “It’s always a pleasure coming to Mexico and seeing Mauricio and the entire WBC Team. It’s been Gennady’s dream to be recognized as the WBC Champion and on Saturday he finally achieved this goal.”
Golovkin announced his next fight the day before arriving in Mexico and will defend his middleweight titles against British boxing star and undefeated welterweight champion Kell Brook on September 10 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
“The international response to the announcement about fighting Kell Brook fight has been extraordinary. There has been a lot of anticipation for Gennady fighting in the UK and we are excited that Kell accepted the challenge so we could finally make this a reality.”
“Gennady’s worldwide popularity increases with every fight and we expect this show to sell out quickly based on the fan response we’ve received. With the expected sold out O2 Arena, Golovkin has become a true international star selling out three arenas in his three most recent fights in different cities including New York City, Los Angeles and London.”
Video of Golokvin’s ESPN Deportes interviews from Saturday can be viewed below.
http://www.espn.com.mx/video/clip?id=2726412
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The 12th Round
By Mauricio Sulaiman
WBC President – Jose Sulaiman´s son
All fights should be in a boxing ring .
The world is going through very sensitive and difficult times. Violence is out of control and every single week reports of killings, riots, bombings and all sorts of tragic events are all over the news all over the world.
Discrimination must not be tolerated. We must learn from history and how such practice has ruined civilizations and has brought misery. The WBC family is united to express its sensible condolences to those who suffered from the shooting in Dallas, where five police service agents were killed .
There are many officers who participate in boxing all over the world. In the USA alone, many ring officials are from the armed forces. Ray Hawkins, RIP, was a great judge and served as deputy in the police force of Dallas for 33 years, currently Jessie Reyes is also in the Dallas police force and is a boxing judge. In California, Steve Morrow, Jack Reiss and so many others belong to our sport. WBC Vice President General Kovid Bhakdibhumi was in charge of the police force of Thailand with 220,000 agents under his leadership, a former BBBC Chairman was from Scotland Yard, and so many other examples simply exemplify the relationship between our combat sport and many heroes who combat the streets trying to protect us all.
Boxing is a noble sport. Fighters engage in tremendous and brutal fights but when that final bell rings, they go to the center of the ring and embrace each other and recognize the virtues of his or her opponent. It is a sport filled with honor and respect.
The past two weeks were special for me and the WBC. We received visits from the two PFP icons of today in our headquarters. Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez spent a few days in Mexico City and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin made a quick trip to receive his WBC green and gold belt. Both represent the best of boxing, inside and outside of the ring. Two undefeated champions, both of them heroes in their nations and respected worldwide, neither has been in any sort of scandal, always positive, always smiling and willing to sign autographs, take pictures, give interviews. Neither drinks, and both are ambassadors of the Clean Boxing Program.
These are the soldiers that boxing has to offer to the world, role models who have a clean life and do the fighting in the ring and lead their society by example in their day to day life. Boxing is an example on how life should be.
Thank you very much and I welcome any comments suggestions or ideas at president@wbcboxing.com.