WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has vowed to continue to take people at face value after he was pictured with influential boxing advisor Daniel Kinahan in Dubai.
Sulaiman was photographed with Kinahan and boxing promoter Ahmet Oner recently and said he has no interest in the Irishman’s background and alleged links to organized crime. Kinahan has long been declared a “person of interest” in probes by the Garda National Drugs and Organized Crime Bureau.
“I am the president of the WBC, I am not Interpol or the police or someone who has to have a prejudice,” Sulaiman said to BoxingScene.com. “I went on a trip, I had numerous meetings with a large number of people and groups and I was very happy with what I saw with the promotions and great future that Dubai and the Middle East has [with boxing], but regarding Daniel, I can’t say anything bad about him. I have been with so many people all over the world and I am not anyone to judge any one person, all I see is him representing fighters and doing the best for them, so I’m not interested in any conflict or what people try to say.”
Sulaiman, who also travelled to Albania and Istanbul, is now home in Mexico and has trips upcoming to Dallas and then England for the heavyweight fight for his organization’s belt between champion Tyson Fury and challenger Dillian Whyte.
When asked about meeting Kinahan and the attraction subsequent pictures drew, Sulaiman added: “I am not a detective and I am not looking into people’s lives. I just have to deal with what is out there and what is put in front of the WBC. There have been people in many sports and many aspects in life who have been in legal troubles, boxing has never had a scandal of fixing fights, it’s a very clean sport and I’m not one to judge. As I say, I deal with 170 countries and I only have empathy and goodwill for everyone and when boxing is supported in good faith. We represent a program from Pope Francis’s Foundation and we represent the best… we have social responsibility programs all over… and I’m not someone to judge anyone at all. That’s my position.”
Of the negative feedback from the picture, Sulaiman continued: “I don’t really understand because I don’t have any knowledge of any wrongdoing by Daniel or anyone. I don’t judge, I don’t have prejudice and I don’t discriminate. I met him in Dubai, he was right there and I don’t know what to say. I always heard other people talk bad about others and I don’t take that, I don’t accept discrimination, abuse of power, abuse of character and I believe he has a relationship with Tyson Fury and he’s our heavyweight champion, so I’m not one to discriminate or go against someone’s character because of someone saying something. Don King was labelled as a criminal and John Doe or any person who has prejudice or is labelled by X, Y or Z, I do not pay attention to that and I am sorry to be very blunt, we do great things for the sport. We do great things every single day for the boxers, in almost 60 years, we have made tremendous changes for the betterment of the sport and I’m not going to get into a this and that because of people I meet on a trip and things I’ve done for the betterment of the sport. I don’t see why it’s a big deal and I don’t understand because as I said, I am not the police, I am president of the WBC and we’re doing great things in the whole world day after day.”
Kinahan is something of a messiah in boxing, with links – past or present – to MTK and Probellum – who have a roster of fighters, trainers, commentators, broadcasters and podcasters working under their banners who speak incredibly highly of the advisor.
Fury, who has a long association with Kinahan, is due to face Whyte on April 23 but the challenger has been slow to endorse the fight and get involved in the promotion.
It’s a situation Sulaiman has monitored.
“I have seen plenty about it,” said the WBC president. “[I’ve] never seen something like this before. It’s a first. He has contractual agreement that he has to abide by and I’m sure he has to abide by it and it’s natural that a fight is promoted and worked on but I’ve never seen something like this. Dillian has been asking for the fight for a long time, and this is the greatest and biggest fight of his life and normal circumstances say they go out and hype their fight but they have their way of doing things.”
Fury and Whyte is being promoted by Queensberry Promotions after Frank Warren submitted a record purse bid to the WBC to stage the contest.
“I was happily surprised,” Sulaiman said, of the $41m bid. “The WBC championship is very very important and it carries the legacy of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Vitali Klitschko and now Deontay Wilder had a good five year run and Fury is the most important fighter in the world so I was very happily surprised with the bid and it shows what the WBC championship means to the world and it’s going to be a tremendous event.”