As the year slowly gets underway, the WBF has a tremendous variety of fights coming up, and fights which will see virtually all our officials in action around the world.
We have fights in South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Germany, France, Norway, USA to mention but a few, and we thank and look forward to seeing both old and new promoters and renewing great friendships with people from these places.
We are in talks about our intercontinental heavyweight champion Onoriode Ehwarieme, 18-1 with 17 KOs, fighting for our world title in the next three months. When I met Onoriode in Nigeria last year, I was pleasantly surprised by his warmth, intelligence and his soft spoken demeanor.
Surely he cannot be a boxer, were my initial thoughts. When he entered the ring, that person was no more the nice, easy going guy. He was a killing machine, as cold as ice!
Less than a minute into the first round, including the count, the fight was over and the durable Ariel Bracamonte from Argentina was still in cloud cuckoo land.
We all laughed that referee Eddie Marshall should refund his referee’s fee to the promoter as he only worked for 55 seconds!
We are certainly looking forward to Ehwarieme fighting for our title. It should be explosive.
We mostly hear about the big promoters, but the smaller promoters are as important.
The lovely lady Sandile Malinga, of the famous Malinga family in South Africa, is promoting a WBF international title fight next Saturday night, February 29, and thus far has been one of the most professional people I have dealt with in boxing.
A week later, we’re off to Norway for our WBF world light heavyweight title fight featuring local hero Tim Robin Lihaug – our first of hopefully many visits to Norway.
I also know that Mirko Scoco and his team are getting ready for a massive fight in April with our star Ema Kozin. Team Kozin are not only highly professional, but are such characters that its always fun to be around them.
We will never forget Olaf, and as we work harder every day to keep his legacy alive. I thank the loyal members who have united and who continue to work hard to ensure that the WBF moves forwards and upwards.
Of course, we have those ‘haters’ who do not wish success for the WBF. To the loyal WBF members my heartfelt thanks and gratitude. You are certainly appreciated. And to the haters, the people with essentially empty lives who believe the world owes them – I would rather not lower myself and the WBF to say anything about their pitiful, bitter and pathetic lives. I only wish they can find happiness in the short lives we all live.
Until next time, keep punching.
Howard Goldberg
PRESIDENT: World Boxing Federation
