BoxRec

johnswan1 wrote:Tell that to Sam Garret's family, who King was convicted of stomping to death over a $600 debt.

palooka wrote:

johnswan1 wrote:Tell that to Sam Garret's family, who King was convicted of stomping to death over a $600 debt.

Yeah, if I see them

Viktor Vaughn wrote:

Boxing Prospect wrote:Now Steve Lillis can sleep well at night...

I imagine he came into the game with the best intentions, but they get corrupted over time.

No doubt he'll now pop up in the WBO ratings.

hurlock wrote:Boxing as a buisness is no different to any other buisness but gets trampled on because there's more transparency.

Deserter wrote:

hurlock wrote:Boxing as a buisness is no different to any other buisness but gets trampled on because there's more transparency.

mugabi wrote:End of the day to some extent he started things like abolition of 15 rounders,more titles for boxers to fight for and earn money off.end of the day it's a business and I think Jose did a lot more for poverty raised boxers than the arsehole American writers who always mocked him.more titles haven't killed boxing although the super and interim champ thing the last 10-12 years has tarnished things the fact is boxing is still a very very rich sport no longer no 1 but hanging in at 5th or so.

loaded_gloves wrote: A QUICK BACKGROUND:
The WBC was formed in the early 60s by promoter George Panasus to represent the many Mexican boxers who weren’t getting a fair treatment from the WBA (then known as the NBA). Sulaiman bagged the top job in 1975 and quickly made himself “President-for-life”.

SULAIMAN, BOXING, AND CHAVEZ:
Sulaiman decided immediate rematches were 'unethical' so, in 1978, broke up the undisputed heavyweight championship when he stripped Leon Spinks for fighting Muhammad Ali (in a Bob Arum promoted rematch). He awarded the WBC belt to Don King’s Ken Norton so he could defend it against Don King’s Larry Holmes. Sulaiman however did not strip Don King’s Roberto Duran in 1980 for fighting an immediate rematch with Leonard as this rematch was “for the good of boxing”… Sulaiman’s actions with Spinks and Ali sent the division into confusion and disarray until Tyson cleaned it up nearly a decade later.

Sulaiman was, in 1983, responsible for cutting championship fights from 15 rounds down to 12 rounds, citing the Duk Koo Kim fatality as the reason. Kim was in fact only the third fatality to happen in those final three rounds since the 1920s (Ernie Schaff in 33 and Jup Elze in 68), with all the other fatalities actually occurring within Sulaiman's new 12 rd limit. Many of boxing’s greatest, most shocking, exiting and dramatic occurances took place in those championship rounds of 13, 14 and 15, including: Ali/Frazier III! Marciano/Walcott! Holmes/Norton! Weaver/Tate! Louis/Conn! Leonard/Hearns! LaMotta/Dauthille! Robinson/LaMotta VI! Pryor/Arguello! and on and on. Thanks to Sulaiman, we've never seen what drama might have unfolded in those final three rounds ever since.

Sulaiman ‘erased’ a loss on Julio Cesar Chavez’s record – he had been disqualified against Miguel Ruiz in Mexico but Sulaiman altered the result to a KO1 to preserve the Mexican’s huge undefeated record – he also called Chavez ‘the greatest pound for pound boxer in the history of boxing’.

Sulaiman allowed Sugar Ray Leonard to simulatenously challenge for the newly created WBC super middle belt and opponent Donny LaLonde’s WBC light heavy belt, despite it being against the WBC’s own rules and neither man being ranked in their super middle top 10. He also allowed Julio Cesar Chavez to retain two division titles at the same time despite it being against WBC rules.

Sulaiman wanted to strip a promoter and everyone involved in an IBF title fight between Graciano Rocchigiani and Sugarboy Malinga as Malinga was a South African. He refused to rank Damiani for two years for fighting DuPlooy. They forbid Jake LaMotta from attending any WBC functions for being photographed shaking hands with South African Brian Mitchell, who had denounced Apartheid! And yet despite all this Sulaiman never took the same stance with promoter Don King, who had promoted Gerrie Coetzee and had even sent Greg Page over to Sun City to fight him.

In the late 80s Sulaiman created a whole load of new sanctioning fees when he invented the ‘international titles’ – and in the inaugural vacant WBC international featherweight title Miguel Francia fought as a lightweight! We have Sulaiman to thank for the current endless international belts. Thanks Jose!

Sulaiman immediately refused to recognise Buster Douglas as champion after his epic victory over Don King’s Mike Tyson, due to a contrived long count controversy – despite their own WBC Code of Ethics instructing “to regard the decisions of the referee and judges as final” – Sulaiman later backed down claiming it was a ‘mistake’ after worldwide media condemnation. He tried arrange an immediate rematch despite immediate rematches being against WBC rules and him taking a firm stance against them whenever the fighters involved were under Don King.

Sulaiman ordered WBC champ Bobby Chacon not to defend his title against number one ranked Cornelias Boza Edwards but instead against Don King’s number two contender Hector Camacho – and accept King’s offer of 150K or get stripped! Chacon instead fought CBE for 400k and the WBC opted to strip him – for fighting their own number one contender!

In 1990, two time world heavyweight champ and independently ranked number 4 heavyweight Tim Witherspoon had a $25 million lawsuit against Don King, Sulaiman ranked Spoon way down at a ridiculous 18 – even behind men Spoon had beaten!

Sulaiman made Don King’s Mike Tyson the number one contender the day after Duva fighter Holyfield KOd Douglas, and decreed he must make his first defence against Mike Tyson – despite the fact Holyfield had been the number one mandatory and was entitled under their rules a full year before he took on his mandatory. When Don King’s Tyson was champ he was allowed to keep Duva’s Holyfield waiting for way over the one year time frame.

Sulaiman also came close to breaking up the undisputed title for a second time, after Spinks/Ali, wanting to strip Holyfield so that two Don King fighters, this time Tyson and Ruddock, could contest a vacant WBC belt.

Sulaiman campaigned long and hard for Holyfield to be stripped of the WBC belt – he even insisted Holyfield must split the purse 55-45 with Tyson, despite the WBC rules calling for 75-25 champion-to-challenger purses. If Holyfield were to refuse this he would strip him of the belt.

When WBC champ Julian Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with Don King over the blank contract he had signed, and began talking with Bob Arum, Sulaiman suddenly decided that Jackson’s retina problems were an issue and he should not be allowed to keep fighting. When Jackson backed down and returned to King, Sulaiman approved his next title defense without any requirement for another eye exam.

Sulaiman openly proclaimed Mike Tyson “innocent” of rape, months before he even began his trial for rape in January 1992. He was convicted. After the verdict, Sulaiman stated “women raped Tyson”. Sulaiman wanted to provide aide and financial support to Carlos Monzon, who at the time was in jail for brutally murdering his wife.

Sulaiman sanctioned a defense by Julio Cesar Chavez against Lonnie Smith, despite Smith being unranked by the WBC.

When Razor Ruddock didn’t pay his WBC sanctioning fee of $150K for his 10 round non-title fight with Greg Page, Sulaiman dropped him to number two. When Ruddock paid up, he was lifted back up to number one.

For the WBC Julio Cesar Chavez-Pelayito Hernandez fight in Mexico the ring size did not conform to the minimum size standards, a complaint that Chavez was using too much tape and gauze was ignored by the WBC, AND CHAVEZ FAILED TO TAKE THE POST-FIGHT URINE TEST…it was at least the second time complaints had been made about Chavez using too much tape and gauze.

Immediately after Riddick Bowe’s stirring victory over Holyfield, the WBC demanded the fiercely independent Rock Newman/Bowe axis must go straight in with their top contender Lennox Lewis – who had unexpectedly slayed Don King’s Razor Ruddock and whom Don King was trying to get under his wing – instead of enjoying the usual champion’s luxury of first making some voluntray defences. Bowe ditched his WBC belt, Sulaiman’s heavy handed finally breaking up the undisputed title Tyson had pieced together after Sulaiman had last botched it with Spinks & Ali in 78. Inevitably Lewis defended his WBC belt against a Don King fighter, Tony Tucker. Other WBC champs such as Wilfredo Gomez and Carlos Zarate were not subject to the same rules and went over a year without mandatory defences. Asked about this in BI in 1996, Sulaiman said “I am not sure because I don’t remember their cases right now”.

Sulaiman attempted to justify the WBC’s stripping of Bowe by pointing to his mismatch with Michael Dokes – ignoring the WBC/Don King mismatches he had sanctioned recently, including Julian Jackson against clubfighter Israel Negron and Chavez versus Haugen, John DuPlessis, Kyung Duk Ahn etc etc.

Sulaiman apparently was heard instructing officials they “were not to reward movement, but aggressiveness”. In the wake of judge Mickey Vann voluntarily deducting a point from Pernell Whitaker against Julio Cesar Chavez without instruction from the referee – thus singlehandedly making his card a draw and saving Chavez the loss, Sulaiman awarded Vann the Lewis/Bruno WBC gig.

When Frankie Randall clearly beat Julio Cesar Chavez in 1994, despite two points deductions from Chavez and a knockdown scored by Randall, he still only won by a point in a split decision. Had he not knocked Chavez down in the 11th, the WBC judges would have scored the fight a draw and Chavez would have retained his title! When Chavez was again losing the rematch, and turned his back again in the 8th saying twice he did not want to continue even though the ringside doctor Flip Homansky said he would have let him, Sulaiman, who personally collects the scorecards and knows who is ahead, decided the fight would not be an LTKO8 but instead go to the socrecards, where Chavez miraculously won on points and regained his title. Ringside reporters had Randall well ahead.

In 1995, Mike Tyson became the number one WBC contender despite having not won a fight in four years. Oliver McCall was the WBC champ, and Don King stiffs Frans Botha and Peter McNeeley suddenly appeared in the top 10 despite never having beaten a ranked contender. Lennox Lewis fought and defeated Don King’s Lionel Butler in a WBC final eliminator, but Sulaiman still kept the inactive Tyson at number one. Riddick Bowe, widely considered the best heavyweight in the world, was unranked by the WBC. The independent world rankings had Bowe at 1, Lewis at 3 and Tyson nowehere in the top 25, do to his complete inactivity.

....Well, I gave up after 1996 because I have other stuff to do. Anyone else feel free to contribute. These are the dark forces that Sergio Martinez is up against tonight. We might have to set up our Bullshit Deflectors to '10' for this one tonight.

G0mez wrote:Will he be buried in his standard green coffin, inter-continental coffin or his diamond coffin ?

Tuan_Jim wrote:This says it all really.

loaded_gloves wrote: A QUICK BACKGROUND:
The WBC was formed in the early 60s by promoter George Panasus to represent the many Mexican boxers who weren’t getting a fair treatment from the WBA (then known as the NBA). Sulaiman bagged the top job in 1975 and quickly made himself “President-for-life”.

SULAIMAN, BOXING, AND CHAVEZ:
Sulaiman decided immediate rematches were 'unethical' so, in 1978, broke up the undisputed heavyweight championship when he stripped Leon Spinks for fighting Muhammad Ali (in a Bob Arum promoted rematch). He awarded the WBC belt to Don King’s Ken Norton so he could defend it against Don King’s Larry Holmes. Sulaiman however did not strip Don King’s Roberto Duran in 1980 for fighting an immediate rematch with Leonard as this rematch was “for the good of boxing”… Sulaiman’s actions with Spinks and Ali sent the division into confusion and disarray until Tyson cleaned it up nearly a decade later.

Sulaiman was, in 1983, responsible for cutting championship fights from 15 rounds down to 12 rounds, citing the Duk Koo Kim fatality as the reason. Kim was in fact only the third fatality to happen in those final three rounds since the 1920s (Ernie Schaff in 33 and Jup Elze in 68), with all the other fatalities actually occurring within Sulaiman's new 12 rd limit. Many of boxing’s greatest, most shocking, exiting and dramatic occurances took place in those championship rounds of 13, 14 and 15, including: Ali/Frazier III! Marciano/Walcott! Holmes/Norton! Weaver/Tate! Louis/Conn! Leonard/Hearns! LaMotta/Dauthille! Robinson/LaMotta VI! Pryor/Arguello! and on and on. Thanks to Sulaiman, we've never seen what drama might have unfolded in those final three rounds ever since.

Sulaiman ‘erased’ a loss on Julio Cesar Chavez’s record – he had been disqualified against Miguel Ruiz in Mexico but Sulaiman altered the result to a KO1 to preserve the Mexican’s huge undefeated record – he also called Chavez ‘the greatest pound for pound boxer in the history of boxing’.

Sulaiman allowed Sugar Ray Leonard to simulatenously challenge for the newly created WBC super middle belt and opponent Donny LaLonde’s WBC light heavy belt, despite it being against the WBC’s own rules and neither man being ranked in their super middle top 10. He also allowed Julio Cesar Chavez to retain two division titles at the same time despite it being against WBC rules.

Sulaiman wanted to strip a promoter and everyone involved in an IBF title fight between Graciano Rocchigiani and Sugarboy Malinga as Malinga was a South African. He refused to rank Damiani for two years for fighting DuPlooy. They forbid Jake LaMotta from attending any WBC functions for being photographed shaking hands with South African Brian Mitchell, who had denounced Apartheid! And yet despite all this Sulaiman never took the same stance with promoter Don King, who had promoted Gerrie Coetzee and had even sent Greg Page over to Sun City to fight him.

In the late 80s Sulaiman created a whole load of new sanctioning fees when he invented the ‘international titles’ – and in the inaugural vacant WBC international featherweight title Miguel Francia fought as a lightweight! We have Sulaiman to thank for the current endless international belts. Thanks Jose!

Sulaiman immediately refused to recognise Buster Douglas as champion after his epic victory over Don King’s Mike Tyson, due to a contrived long count controversy – despite their own WBC Code of Ethics instructing “to regard the decisions of the referee and judges as final” – Sulaiman later backed down claiming it was a ‘mistake’ after worldwide media condemnation. He tried arrange an immediate rematch despite immediate rematches being against WBC rules and him taking a firm stance against them whenever the fighters involved were under Don King.

Sulaiman ordered WBC champ Bobby Chacon not to defend his title against number one ranked Cornelias Boza Edwards but instead against Don King’s number two contender Hector Camacho – and accept King’s offer of 150K or get stripped! Chacon instead fought CBE for 400k and the WBC opted to strip him – for fighting their own number one contender!

In 1990, two time world heavyweight champ and independently ranked number 4 heavyweight Tim Witherspoon had a $25 million lawsuit against Don King, Sulaiman ranked Spoon way down at a ridiculous 18 – even behind men Spoon had beaten!

Sulaiman made Don King’s Mike Tyson the number one contender the day after Duva fighter Holyfield KOd Douglas, and decreed he must make his first defence against Mike Tyson – despite the fact Holyfield had been the number one mandatory and was entitled under their rules a full year before he took on his mandatory. When Don King’s Tyson was champ he was allowed to keep Duva’s Holyfield waiting for way over the one year time frame.

Sulaiman also came close to breaking up the undisputed title for a second time, after Spinks/Ali, wanting to strip Holyfield so that two Don King fighters, this time Tyson and Ruddock, could contest a vacant WBC belt.

Sulaiman campaigned long and hard for Holyfield to be stripped of the WBC belt – he even insisted Holyfield must split the purse 55-45 with Tyson, despite the WBC rules calling for 75-25 champion-to-challenger purses. If Holyfield were to refuse this he would strip him of the belt.

When WBC champ Julian Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with Don King over the blank contract he had signed, and began talking with Bob Arum, Sulaiman suddenly decided that Jackson’s retina problems were an issue and he should not be allowed to keep fighting. When Jackson backed down and returned to King, Sulaiman approved his next title defense without any requirement for another eye exam.

Sulaiman openly proclaimed Mike Tyson “innocent” of rape, months before he even began his trial for rape in January 1992. He was convicted. After the verdict, Sulaiman stated “women raped Tyson”. Sulaiman wanted to provide aide and financial support to Carlos Monzon, who at the time was in jail for brutally murdering his wife.

Sulaiman sanctioned a defense by Julio Cesar Chavez against Lonnie Smith, despite Smith being unranked by the WBC.

When Razor Ruddock didn’t pay his WBC sanctioning fee of $150K for his 10 round non-title fight with Greg Page, Sulaiman dropped him to number two. When Ruddock paid up, he was lifted back up to number one.

For the WBC Julio Cesar Chavez-Pelayito Hernandez fight in Mexico the ring size did not conform to the minimum size standards, a complaint that Chavez was using too much tape and gauze was ignored by the WBC, AND CHAVEZ FAILED TO TAKE THE POST-FIGHT URINE TEST…it was at least the second time complaints had been made about Chavez using too much tape and gauze.

Immediately after Riddick Bowe’s stirring victory over Holyfield, the WBC demanded the fiercely independent Rock Newman/Bowe axis must go straight in with their top contender Lennox Lewis – who had unexpectedly slayed Don King’s Razor Ruddock and whom Don King was trying to get under his wing – instead of enjoying the usual champion’s luxury of first making some voluntray defences. Bowe ditched his WBC belt, Sulaiman’s heavy handed finally breaking up the undisputed title Tyson had pieced together after Sulaiman had last botched it with Spinks & Ali in 78. Inevitably Lewis defended his WBC belt against a Don King fighter, Tony Tucker. Other WBC champs such as Wilfredo Gomez and Carlos Zarate were not subject to the same rules and went over a year without mandatory defences. Asked about this in BI in 1996, Sulaiman said “I am not sure because I don’t remember their cases right now”.

Sulaiman attempted to justify the WBC’s stripping of Bowe by pointing to his mismatch with Michael Dokes – ignoring the WBC/Don King mismatches he had sanctioned recently, including Julian Jackson against clubfighter Israel Negron and Chavez versus Haugen, John DuPlessis, Kyung Duk Ahn etc etc.

Sulaiman apparently was heard instructing officials they “were not to reward movement, but aggressiveness”. In the wake of judge Mickey Vann voluntarily deducting a point from Pernell Whitaker against Julio Cesar Chavez without instruction from the referee – thus singlehandedly making his card a draw and saving Chavez the loss, Sulaiman awarded Vann the Lewis/Bruno WBC gig.

When Frankie Randall clearly beat Julio Cesar Chavez in 1994, despite two points deductions from Chavez and a knockdown scored by Randall, he still only won by a point in a split decision. Had he not knocked Chavez down in the 11th, the WBC judges would have scored the fight a draw and Chavez would have retained his title! When Chavez was again losing the rematch, and turned his back again in the 8th saying twice he did not want to continue even though the ringside doctor Flip Homansky said he would have let him, Sulaiman, who personally collects the scorecards and knows who is ahead, decided the fight would not be an LTKO8 but instead go to the socrecards, where Chavez miraculously won on points and regained his title. Ringside reporters had Randall well ahead.

In 1995, Mike Tyson became the number one WBC contender despite having not won a fight in four years. Oliver McCall was the WBC champ, and Don King stiffs Frans Botha and Peter McNeeley suddenly appeared in the top 10 despite never having beaten a ranked contender. Lennox Lewis fought and defeated Don King’s Lionel Butler in a WBC final eliminator, but Sulaiman still kept the inactive Tyson at number one. Riddick Bowe, widely considered the best heavyweight in the world, was unranked by the WBC. The independent world rankings had Bowe at 1, Lewis at 3 and Tyson nowehere in the top 25, do to his complete inactivity.

....Well, I gave up after 1996 because I have other stuff to do. Anyone else feel free to contribute. These are the dark forces that Sergio Martinez is up against tonight. We might have to set up our Bullshit Deflectors to '10' for this one tonight.