Boxing superstar and future Hall of Famer Manny Pacquiao will be joining longtime World Boxing Council (WBC) president Mauricio Sulaiman in attendance for the first Pacquiao Elorde Awards Night on March 24 at the Okada Manila.
Pacquiao said the WBC — one of the major four boxing professional bodies World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Organization (WBO) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) — has a great history with the Filipino people during its early years.
“It’s really an honor that WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman will be joining us to be the guest speaker of the Pacquiao Elorde Awards Night this coming Sunday,” the 45-year-old Pacquiao said.
“He is a real good role model, and his leadership is really well respected in the whole boxing world,” added Pacquiao. “I’m very happy to be associated with great Elorde in terms of recognizing and honoring our athletes.”
Pacquiao, the world’s only eight-division champion in different weight classes, has captured a variety of WBC titles for so many years, beginning with the OPBF title in 1997, the international and his first world title — the WBC green belt champion in the flyweight category in 1998.
Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, the country’s legendary boxer, has been considered by the WBC as its greatest super featherweight champion following a brilliant career when he held the super featherweight championship for seven long years from 1960 to 1967.
Speaking of history, Manny Pacquiao’s MP Promotions president Sean Gibbons said that Pacquiao knew the Philippines was one of the 11 founding countries of the WBC, when it was founded on February 14, 1963.
“It’s a grand return to history, as the Philippines was one of the founding nations of the WBC and during the late 1960s until the early 1970s, Filipinos were then its president and secretary-general too,” Gibbons, also an international matchmaker, said.
He referred to Justiniano Montano Jr., who was the WBC president then, while the secretary general was the late Rodrigo Salud, who crafted the bylaws of the governing body.
The son of the former WBC lifetime president Jose Sulaiman, according to Gibbons, will be arriving in Manila on Wednesday afternoon.
He will also be in attendance on Saturday night together with former senator Pacquiao when Paris Olympics bound Eumir Felix Marcial fights Saturday against Thai Thoedsak Sinam at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
“He [Sulaiman] will surely enjoy his stay here in Manila with Manny Pacquiao,” Gibbons added.