WBC chief Manila-bound for Pacquiao Elorde Awards

MANILA, Philippines -- Boxing icon 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 along with the 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.”

“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 been a variety of WBC champions 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 his brilliant career when he held the super featherweight championship for seven long years from 1960 to 1967.

Speaking of history, Sean Gibbons, president of Pacquiao’s MP Promotions, said that Pacquiao is aware that 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. as the WBC president that time, and the secretary-general was the late Rodrigo Salud, who crafted the by-laws 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 when Paris Olympics-bound Eumir Felix Marcial fights Thoedsak Sinam of Thailand at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

“He [Sulaiman] will surely enjoy his stay here in Manila with Manny Pacquiao,” Gibbons added.