The Fight Network

From the office of WBC President José Sulaimán:

The following is one of the weekly "Hook to the Liver" columns by WBC President José Sulaimán that are published in El Universal every Sunday. From August 29, translated from Spanish:

HOOK TO THE LIVER
By José Sulaimán

Pension Fund for Senior Retired Champions.

A good number of years ago, living in the province, I came with several friends to Mexico City to see, at the now traditional PLAZA MEXICO, the fight for the NABF title between the Mexican super hero Raul Macías and Nate Brooks, who was the champion at the time. There was no respect for my being a commissioner in my home town, and I had to pay about five times the price of the ticket.

The bullfight arena was totally full with more than 55,000 people, and it was raining. Shining stars like Maria Felix, Beto Avila, Silverio Perez, Agustin Lara, and Pedro Infante, as well as countless politicians, sports idols, industrialists, and the noisy boxing fans ..... everybody was there. The rain stopped just before the fight and Raton Macías came to the ring with his shoes covered with plastic, to protect them against the mud, carrying a fighting cock - bantamweight in Spanish is a cock - that he threw to the people at ringside.

With Macías being unable to connect one punch in the first rounds, with the arena silent like a cemetery, Macías came back with his famous HOOK TO THE LIVER that made him famous, plus combinations to knock down Brooks, that made the Plaza Mexico thunderous from the passionate fans, but taking all the route to beat him and conquer the NABF title. Just after the fight the rain came back as strong as ever, like celebrating the victory of the Mexican idol. I am certain that this great fight had the environment, the passion and the class, no less than Ali-Frazier at the MSG, Leonard-Duran in Montreal, or Monzon-Nápoles at a giant circus tent in Paris, as I was at all of them, to certify my statement.

With this nostalgic remembrance, I was sitting with the 22 great Mexican seniors, former champions and idols, in a ceremony where the humanity of Carlos Slim and his Telmex Foundation was shown by his giving them a life pension, something that had never been done in the 300 years of the "contemporary" history of boxing. They also received lifetime medical insurance.

Boxers are among those who are born in the humblest of beds, who have no access to society due to their poverty, but who find the friendly hand of our sport extended to use their valiant hearts and the minds of a winner. Their names take the eight columns of the papers, the television screens to become the heroes of their street, their suburb, city, state, nation and the world. They live a happy life thinking that what they spend they will get back in the next fight, until father time flies as fast as the wind, the lights of the arenas and of the rings shine no more, and their life take a downturn until the time that they have little or nothing left on which to live other than their dreams of their great past.

Hurt financially by some of the people in the industry, the unfair taxes, considering such a short working life, their luxurious cars, their lavish lives, and the so many friends that come to them like the bees do when "el panal" has honey, until the time when they lose fame, respect and money ..... they become the sad history of those who had everything and end up with nothing.

Carlos Slim, a multi-millionaire with a humanitarian heart, felt the drama of boxing and boxers, and felt how serious their needs were, that he stepped forward to give them a life of dignity. They were the 20 greatest Mexican boxing heroes of all time, in their times of need, and at an age that little can be done, but what was felt deeply in the hearts even of themselves, was the pension given to the families of two of the greatest of all time who have gone into the path of no return: Raúl "Ratón" Macías and José Medel. it was perhaps a message from heaven to have their names with the other 20 greatest of all time.

I sincerely hope that this exemplary action of Carlos Slim, will invite many other people or institutions to help all those sports heroes, of all sports, to give a life of dignity for the great times of pride and glory that they all gave us.