Entertaining and dotted with anecdotes and events that changed the course of boxing, this is how WBC Talks 41 turned out, where Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the World Boxing Council, had Elizabeth Reyes, deputy director of Cleto Reyes, and her husband Guillermo as guests. Moreno, from CRUSA.
By Rodolfo Rosales S.
Entertaining and dotted with anecdotes and events that changed the course of boxing, this is how WBC Talks 41 turned out, where Mauricio Sulaimán, president of the World Boxing Council, had Elizabeth Reyes, deputy director of Cleto Reyes, and her husband Guillermo as guests. Moreno, from CRUSA.
It was a talk with a lot of punch, because not only was the historic friendship of the Sulaimán and Reyes families revealed, but also the way in which the green and gold organization and Cleto Reyes have walked through the world of boxing.
In WBC Talks 41, Mauricio Sulaimán, had the participation of Xóchil Lagarda, the director of the WBC University, Pepe Toño Sulaimán and Víctor Silva.
In her first speech, Elizabeth Reyes, after hearing from Pepe Toño that he was in boxing and the WBC because of his grandfather Don José Sulaimán and Don Alberto Reyes, stated that we are proud to be here, with the best intentions of preserve that legacy of moral and business quality.”.
He recalled that it was from 1988, at the WBC Convention, in Mexico City, when his father, Don Alberto, began to participate in them, until 2018 and that during that time both families have shared many things.
At that moment Guillermo Moreno intervened, who recalled that Mauricio Sulaimán was the first to find out about the marriage commitment and it was the WBC president himself who narrated the event: I do not forget that, my wife Crhistiane Manzur and I entered a restaurant, there Elizabeth and Guillermo were there, we greeted them; then they lowered a basket and from there they took out the engagement ring, so we capped champagne even then boxing followed me, said Elizabeth and everyone burst out laughing.reír.
When asked what Cleto Reyes is, Eli replied: This year we are celebrating the centenary of my grandfather's birth and we are having a party honoring his memory. Don Cleto Reyes was born into a humble family. He liked to play sports, he played baseball and worked in a baseball mitt shop. At that time the Juan Zurita-Rodolfo Casanova-Joe Conde trilogy was alive and my grandfather participated in a spontaneous fight and gave a fight that even threw money at him, but it was his debut and farewell.da”.
He added that he did not get back into the ring, but he took his gloves to repair them and other boxers brought his gloves to him; so because of that fight and his ability to repair gloves, he became famous and thus the gloves of champions were born.s.
He said that before the gloves had a very hard padding, which caused the blows to be solid. So in 1968, with the support of Dr. Gilberto Bolaños cacho, head of the Medical Services of the Box Commission, they looked for a padding that would protect the boxers and that was when carded horsehair was incorporated into the foam padding of the gloves. of fight.
Elizabeth recalled three important changes to boxer protection: the glove with attached thumb, the four ropes in the ring, and the discontinuation of six-ounce gloves in 1991.
Of the gloves with attached thumb, Mauricio Sulaimán recalled that I was in several of the meetings that my father had with yours. Everlast had done one with a sticky thumb, but they hurt Ray Leonard's fist and it was your dad who did the sticky thumb, no one else, it was a formidable thing.”.
It was also recognized that it was Mauricio who proposed to Don Alberto Reyes to place an expiration label on the gloves because the life of the fighting gloves is very short, only 30 rounds, and then they stop protecting the boxer, Elizabeth said.h.
And Mauricio added: It continues to happen that in four-round fights, due to limited economy, they turn the gloves in several fights and that is not good, because water, sweat and blows get into new gloves and they lose its protection characteristics and this standard that we implemented with Cleto Reyes in a standard tag worldwide, the integrity of the fighters is taken care of, but the collaboration of all the commissions, managers and matchmakers is needed to subtract the rounds of useful life from fighting gloves.”.
Mauricio Sulaimán recognized the quality and simplicity of the Reyes family to which Elizabeth replied: We have the firm intention of honoring that legacy and the memory of my grandfather, Don Cleto Reyes, and my father (Don Alberto Reyes). I grew up surrounded by gloves, they did change my diapers at the work tables and I love this activity.”.
