José Sulaimán
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José Sulaimán (born May 30, 1931 in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas) is a Mexican boxing official of Lebanese-descent. He is the president/godfather of the World Boxing Council.
Sulaimán is known in the boxing world as an administrator for the WBC for more than three decades. At the age of 16 he was on the boxing commission in San Luis Potosí. In 1968 he joined the World Boxing Council (WBC) and on December 5, 1975 was unanimously elected president of the WBC and has remained just that until today. His shrewd management allowed the WBC to become just as powerful as the original sanctioning body World Boxing Association. Among changes proposed by him are reduction of world championship bouts from 15 rounds to 12, the official weigh-in 24 hours prior to each bout, the creation of intermediate weight divisions, creation of the World Medical Congress, introduction of the attached thumb glove and funding of brain injury research programs at UCLA.[1]
Critics accuse him to have made changes like the extra divisions to make more money from sanctioning fees and reduced rounds to accommodate television. He is also known to be very close to promoter Don King , many King fighters are placed highly in his ratings. The Ring Magazine has thus called him "a swell guy to have lunch with but you better count the silver afterwards". He was introduced into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on June 10, 2006[2].
Sulaimán speaks Spanish, English, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese and French.
He also operates a medical supply company in Mexico.
