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Renowed internet journalist Dan
Hernandez sat down with Alan
Santana, the new Regional
Representative for the US West
Coast for the World Boxing
Federation, and discussed his
views on and goals with the WBF.
The 49-year-old Santana, a
former pro fighter himself, is
based in Fountain Valley,
California and his contact
informations can now be found in
the
Directory
of this website.
Please explain the background of
the organization, your title,
and the goals you share!
First of all, Dan, thank you and
I am very honored to be a part
of the World Boxing Federation.
I did my homework on the
organization before I decided
if I wanted the position that
was offered to me. My title is
Regional Representative for the
Western United States which
include California, Nevada, New
Mexico and Arizona. The WBF was
originally founded in 1988 by
Larry Carrier in Bristol,
Tennessee and is growing by
leaps and bounds every day.
After reading the message of WBF
president Howard Goldberg for
2011 and the standards that he
has set for the WBF, I felt very
comfortable moving forward. We
do have the same goals in mind
here and that is to promote the
organization and make it stand
out against all of the
competition.
What are your qualifications and
background for this post?
My duties are to promote the WBF
with the same class, dignity and
passion as I fought with inside
of the ring back in the mid
1980's as a professional boxer,
under the ring name Alan "The
Matinee Idol" Santana. I have
spent most of my childhood and
adult life in and around
boxing. I had over 100 amateur
fights, both with the AAU and
USA Boxing and was trained by
the late great Fabela Chavez. I
have been involved in the
family paving business for over
30 years and running my own
business since I was 27 years
old. I feel that will give me
the edge that I need to succeed
in my role as a representative
for the WBF. I will be in charge
of all title matches, appointing
judges and referees and
supervising the events. I will
work with the local boxing
commissioner in the state that
the event is being held in and
to make sure that all of the
paper work is in order before
the event takes place.
What is the immediate goal of
the WBF in order to reach the
ultimate?
The immediate goal of the WBF is
to promote fights that are world
class bouts and to have
champions that will represent
our organization well. One thing
that I see in the sport of
boxing today is that it seems to
have lost it's way with
everything that is going on in
today's world. We also have to
compete with the MMA and we have
lost a lot of our audience to
the MMA. Years ago you could ask
almost anyone in the United
States who was the heavyweight
champion of the world and 9 out
of 10 people could tell you who
he was. Today I think that is
totally the opposite, 9 out of
10 people don't know who the
champion is. The quality of the
fights that are being promoted
by the other organizations are,
I feel, sub-standard and that is
what this organization is trying
to do: Promote world class
fights. Fights that will make
people want to come back for
more, again and again. The other
thing that separates us from all
other organizations is that we
use computerized rankings for
our fighters and title holders.
That is huge to me! It sets us
apart from everyone else. If you
want to succeed in any business
you need to be different and
stand out from everyone else and
that is what we are doing.
You have a large area, how do
you plan to
successfully coordinate your
efforts?
Yes, I am covering a fairly
large area of the US and to
accomplish the goals that I have
set for myself, I will need to
surround myself with good
quality people and who also have
the knowledge of the game and
are business savvy. In this game
you need that in your corner or
you will get knocked off of your
feet. I will build a solid group
of officials and with with the
top promoters to make the WBF a
household name.
What do the promoters, referees,
trainers, etc. need to do to be
involved with the WBF?
In order to be involved with the
WBF as an official, I will look
for a few things. One is
experience in the ring and the
others are honesty and
integrity, if the last two parts
of the formula are missing then
it will not be a good fit and I
will move on and look for judges
and referees that do fit the
criteria we are looking for. As
far as the promoters go, it is
like any other business, there
are good promoters and you have
the bad promoters. We want to
work with only the best and
again it all points back to
honesty and integrity.
Why the WBF as opposed to all
the other organizations?
You ask me why the WBF as
opposed to the others. We will
put on quality shows and bouts.
We will have exciting
championship title fights that
will give the people their
money's worth and remember we
are a world class organization
who is already putting on title
fights all around the world.
People will remember the WBF and
the names of the champions when
it is all said and done. We also
have championship titles for all
weight classes for women also.
Most boxing organizations do not
even recognize the women of the
ring and here at the WBF we do.
I feel that there is room for
the WBF and another reason in
this day and age is like I told
you earlier, we need to restore
the sport back to it's glory
days. To bring back the stature
of what a world champion should
be or how he should carry
himself both inside and outside
of the ring. Remember, kids look
up to these athletes and to the
organizations who back them. The
sport is sorely missing
something today and we need to
get it back.
What do you think of all the
"ABC championships"?
I feel that today there are way
too many titles or as you call
them ABC titles and the existing
organizations have lost all
their luster with all of the
pettiness that goes on between
them. I will not mention any
names. A lot of the title fights
that are put on and the fighters
they sometimes use are not ready
to be inside the ring for a
title fight and the
organizations are just using
these guys to build up their own
champions or a lot of the time,
they will do a favor for someone
or somebody and give them a
title shot. Back in the 1940's
and 50's you could not even
think of fighting for a world
title if you had less than 50
fights under your belt. Guys
like Ike Williams, who had over
180 professional fights and
Sugar Ray Robinson would not be
able to fight for a title. We
want to restore boxing back to
the glory days of the 1940's and
50's.
Why do we need another boxing
organization?
Dan, there is always room for
another boxing organization in
the world and the way most of
the organizations are ran today
we will stand out above the
rest. We are giving fighters a
chance, both male and female to
hold a title belt from a world
class organization. We can learn
from the mistakes of other
organizations of what to do and
what not to do.
World Boxing Federation sounds
like you are recognized
throughout the world, is that
valid? If not, why not?
The WBF is recognized around the
world. We have not reached every
part of the world yet but in a
few years we will. The one thing
that I really like about the WBF
is that we are truly worldwide,
just take a look at our
president and everyone else that
is involved the the
organization. We have people
from all over the world working
with us, not just in the USA and
I feel that makes us very valid.
Our champions also come from
every part of the world, the
USA, Mexico, France, Germany and
many other countries. That makes
us a very valid organization. I
feel that the WBF is here to
stay and will become a force
with all of the promoters and
fighters around the world. We
will give all of the other
boxing organizations a run for
their money.
The WBF is here to stay. |
