Written by Mauricio Sulaiman
Son of Jose Sulaiman / WBC President
This past weekend saw the first boxing card broadcast by Amazon and its Prime Video platform.
A spectacular boxing card unlike anything seen in a long time. My memories took me back to the golden era when Don King produced amazing galas of having three, four, and even five World Championship matches on the same card. A similar bout took place last Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, with the World Boxing Council in attendance, resulting in three memorable fights. A thrilling crescendo.
Our world flyweight champion Julio Cesar “Rey” Martinez defended his title for the seventh time against Venezuelan fighter Angelino Cordova. The match was a majority decision, with two judges scoring it 114-112, resulting in a disappointing loss. The other one is 113-113. It was a close fight, non-stop action and drama. Martinez was knocked down twice in the third round, which ultimately proved to be the difference between retaining the green belt and the gold belt.
Another epic battle was for the interim super welterweight championship, which Ukraine's Serhii Bokhatyuk won in a clash with the iron-jawed former kingpin Brian Mendoza. The fight went to a 12-round decision, with Bohachuk winning by unanimous decision. This victory will bring a ray of encouragement to the country, which has been struggling for two long years with a war against Russian aggression that has killed countless innocent people.
Vasily Lomachenko travels to Australia to take on George Kambosos Jr., Oleksandr Usyk takes on WBC champion Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia, and Oleksandr Gvozdyk takes on David Benavidez in the United States. Boxing will be on the world stage. Will Bokhachuk inspire his compatriots in their respective battles?
Back to last Saturday night. Plus, two more world championship fights. Erislandy Lara defeated his official challenger by knockout. No one can explain how Michael Zerafa became a mandatory challenger. He was knocked out in just two rounds by Cuban Lara.
Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz swarmed, overpowered, and knocked out Laurie Romero, who had tried to insult and mock him months before the fight. Champion Laurie Romero teased the Mexican, who simply smiled and advised tersely, “Let's talk in the ring.” Romero even called Cruz a Chihuahua dog. The final story was very different.
Well, Pitbull won decisively and in spectacular fashion, impressing fans. Watching this match, I saw the Julio Cesar Chavez fight, Edwin Rosario insulting him and JC beating him, or Salvador Sanchez getting his way against the talkative Wilfredo Gomez. I remember that great game. Mexico has a hero who won the all-out battle against the brave Romero and made a huge declaration.
The main battle was for many one of the most dramatic and bloodiest battles they had ever seen. Australia's Tim Tzi, son of legendary champion Kostya Tzi, faced former interim champion Sebastian Fundora, who is 1.98 meters tall and is known as “The Towering Inferno.”
Tszyu got off to a strong start, but at the end of the second round his head accidentally collided with Fundora's elbow, resulting in the strangest cut I've ever seen. The jagged divot dug deep into his hairline, causing him to bleed profusely during the match. . Every round was close, and the drama of Tim's blood faucet and Sebastian's constant nosebleed had the audience on the edge of their seats until the final bell rang. Sebastian won by split decision in front of a sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena. Sebastian and Tim's determination, courage and heroic efforts to win the fight are humbling to everyone and are sure to be admired by the sporting world.
I would like to congratulate the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the attending physicians, and referee Harvey Dock for allowing the match to proceed and making it a memorable event for everyone. Cuts were consistently monitored and constantly evaluated. Congratulations to both warriors in the ring. There is no doubt that there will be great interest in having this battle take place again.
With PBC lining up a host of elite champions and interesting matchups on its star-studded calendar for the remainder of 2024, Amazon is now one of the platinum platforms on which boxing will be aired on the all-important event. It has become.
The history of boxing is closely tied to television companies. Boxing has grown from thousands of fans in arenas and stadiums to millions on television, producing worldwide viewership records for many years.
In the United States, the ABC, CBS, and NBC networks aired Muhammad Ali's big fights in the 70s, as well as many of the era's greatest stars who fought on free-to-air television stations. Then HBO came along and became the king of boxing for decades as the cable television company aired many legendary matches. Showtime also established itself as a world power on cable, going toe-to-toe with HBO for many years. Along with ESPN+, there was always ESPN, which remains one of the major networks.
In Mexico, Televisa has been broadcasting its traditional Saturday program at the Arena Coliseo for 47 years without interruption. In 2006, Televisión Azteca began broadcasting and established itself as La Casa del Boxeo.
There are currently many networks that broadcast boxing in their respective countries, with ESPN, DAZN, and now the giant platform Amazon with Prime Video leading the charge around the world.
Did you know that…?
When Open TV was taking the world by storm with free programming, HBO was just a regular cable network. It was boxing that took his subscriber count from 10,000 to hundreds of thousands of people, broadcasting the legendary fight between George Foreman and Joe Frazier from Caracas, Venezuela, where Foreman was the only one to lose in two rounds. He knocked out Frazier on seventh down.
today's anecdote
My father has always been a visionary throughout his life. As such, he, along with the World Boxing Council, led multiple rule and program changes and adaptations to make boxing safer, more global, competitive and entertaining.
One of his last dreams was thwarted by a lack of technology when he wanted to carry out the construction of a platform that would allow promoters to broadcast boxing performances through what is now known as internet streaming . This concept and pilot his program was presented to all promoters about 13 years ago, but no one was interested. SULJOS TV was too fast for the real world. There was no technology to support that goal.
Today, that is a reality, with DAZN, ESPN+ and Prime Video platforms controlling global boxing and reaching every corner of the globe. Don José died without seeing his inspired idea come to fruition, but today it is a brainwave, a broadcast-wave reality.
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