(MAR 13) On March 4th, WBAN posted a
link to a story by Julian Turner, of the Bangkok Post who wrote an
article, “Belt farce needs to be addressed”.
WBAN has received a response sent into by the WBC, where the
incident was addressed by WBC José Sulaimán Ch. President directly
to Julian Turner. This was his response:
My dear friend Julian:
Some one sent to me and I have read your article in relation to the
super flyweight female title; it was very unfortunate that I was not
approached with your questions before you published it.
Unwillingly, we have created a problem in the female super flyweight
WBC championship mainly because of the inactivity of the former
champion of the world from north Korea Ryu Myong Ok, who had no
promoter in her country and no one had offered any defense out of
North Korea, even when they insisted.
It would have been very unfair to vacate her title as it had not
been her fault, so the WBC decided to approve a fight between the
former champion Ana María Torres and Esmeralda Moreno for the
interim championship of her division, as we must have active
divisions to keep boxing alive.
Some time after such approval, the WBC was informed that, finally,
champion Ryu received an offer to defend her title in Thailand
against Usanakorn Kokietgym, of who we are requesting her real name
,defense that was approved, as we can not freeze a boxer to make her
living, nor could we step on the WBC’s ruling of the interim bout.
Ana María Torres won and became the interim super flyweight
champion.
While that happened, champion Ryu had an injury or she became ill
and cancelled her fight with Usanakorn, reason for which and
following the WBC rules, the WBC voted to vacate the title and in
favor of appointing Ana María the undisputed WBC super fly weight
female champion of the world, while at the same time, to save the
date and the expenses, commitments and “the face” of the
promoter in Thailand we approved an interim championship against a
fighter for who we trusted the `promoter with his selection due to
limited information on female fighters in Asia while practically at
the same time, we approved a defense of the world title of Ana María
against a Panamanian challenger named Paulina Cardona; both
approvals with the condition that the winners should fight for an
undisputed champion of the WBC of the super fly weight division,
which is what we are doing now. Ana María won and so did Usanakorn,
so they must fight each other.
I can understand the reasons for your article, as it would have been
just about my same thoughts if I did not know the happenings and the
reason for the WBC’s rulings.
As I know you personally, and I have the highest respect and empathy
for your honest journalism, I am sure that you will give us the
opportunity to place in an article the WBC’s side of the story,
while you are free to investigate whatever else you think necessary
to check the truth . We might have done wrong, but we are in boxing
for the service of others and we are very concerned, also, to
protect the promoters all over, as without them we would have not
professional boxing.
I kindly ask you to please accept my very best and most respectful
regards.
José Sulaimán Ch.
President
WBAN would like to thank Jill Diamond for sending in the
information about this fight and the response from the WBC to Julian
Turner.
