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The oldest of five siblings,
Sergio Sotelo grew up with his
parents and four sisters in
Tijuana, Mexico. With boxing
being Mexico´s second most
popular sport, only behind
soccer, Sergio idolized the
likes of Ruben Olivares,
Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar
Chavez, but was not allowed by
his parents to box himself.
Born in 1960, he was instead
encouraged to play team sports,
so he took up basketball and
Track & Field, representing his
high school and university in
local, state and national
tournaments. But he never let go
of his fascination with boxing,
despite his parents trying to
keep him away from the sport.
“They
didn’t want me to box, but I
bought two pairs of boxing
gloves anyway and invited
friends to my house. We moved
all the furniture in my room,
and just went at it until we got
tired”, says Sotelo (56),
laughing at the memory from his
early years.
While he obtained a bachelors
degree in biochemistry in the
mid eighties, Sotelo has spend
most of his professional life
working in sales with various
telecommunication companies. In
2003 he decided to get into
professional boxing as a
booking-agent, making fights
abroad mainly for Mexican
fighters.
“Its
a very tough business, so you
really have to love boxing and
keep working towards your
goals”, explains Sotelo, who
also briefly managed a couple of
world class fighters.
Later on he was inspired by his
uncle, acclaimed international
judge Enrique Sotelo, to get
into professional boxing as an
official. His involvement with
the World Boxing Federation
started by coincidence:
“I
was comunicating on Facebook
with the WBF Vice President,
whom I didn’t know at all. After
a few days of chatting about
boxing, he told me that he was
impressed with my boxing
knowledge and offered me to be
part of the WBF as its Mexico
representative.”
“After
doing a bit a research, I
quickly accepted his offer when
I realized that its a great
sanctioning body that wanted to
get a fresh start without all
the corruption and greed that so
many other sanctioning bodies
are known for.”
Sotelo was later promoted within
the WBF to the position he
currently holds. He still
regularly acts as a judge, and
it was in the role of WBF
supervisor in which he
experienced what he calls his
favorite moment in the sport:
“Howard
Goldberg (WBF President)
appointed me to supervise what
turned out to be Evander
Holyfield´s last world
championship fight, when he
defended his WBF world
Heavyweight title against
Sherman Williams in West
Virginia back in 2011.”
“It
was a great honor to meet “The
Real Deal”, as well as other
legendary former world
Heavyweight champions in
attendance that night, such as
Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis.
It was just a great experience,
one I will never forget and
always cherish.”
With boxing being such a big
sport in Mexico, and with so
many legendary fighters and
current world class operators
being from Mexico, it is
obviously a huge market for the
sport. And when asked for his
opinion about the current
landscape in Mexican boxing, it
sends Mr. Sotelo into a bit of a
rant:
“Soccer
is the most popular sport here,
boxing is second. We have never
won the world cup in soccer, but
we have had more than one
hundred world champions in
boxing, if I am not mistaking.
But boxing here is controlled
and polarized by two main TV
networks, TV Azteca and
Televisa."
“At
the moment, only two promoters
are getting the TV dates on
those networks, and therefore
also all of the money in
Mexico.”
“The
rest of the promoters, some of
them very good promoters for a
very long time, have to rely on
what is left as far as smaller
TV networks, limited sponsors
etc. in order to stage their
shows and support the careers of
many very good fighters that
don’t have the backing of the
two main promoters.”
“Here
is where the World Boxing
Federation in Mexico is working,
with promoters who have a
genuine love for the sport,
people who most of the time lose
money, or break even at best, on
their shows but still continue
on.”
“There
are a lot of good up-and-coming
fighters with these smaller
promoters, who are waiting for
things to change in Mexico so
that national networks open the
opportunities for all promoters
to get financial backing,
instead of only giving it to two
promoters.”
“But,
honestly, its been very
difficult to work for the WBF in
Mexico, mainly because in
America, in general we have all
of the four major sanctioning
bodies here.”
“The
one based in Mexico has used
many political tactics to
discredit our work here, by
advising local boxing commission
presidents and promoters not to
work with us, going on national
TV back in January of 2013 to
ridicule our work.”
“It
was said that we are a paper
organization with paper belts,
and that our president conducts
his business from his garage.
Well, our President conducts
business world-wide, travels
constantly to new countries,
opening many doors around the
world for the WBF.”
“If
that is a garage President, then
I want to become one myself!”
“There
are people under upper
management command who have
tried to obstruct our work in
Mexico, and some of my officials
get very frustrated because of
the injustice and ask to talk to
the press to set things
straight.”
“But
my advice to them has always
been the same: The best way to
defend ourselves is by doing the
job right, professionally and
ethically. That is our strength!
We are a non profit organization
who wants to bring respect and
dignity back to boxing, the rest
is just politics, greed and
corruption.”
All this being said, Sotelo has
still done a wonderful job for
the World Boxing Federation in
his country. Some very good male
WBF champions have been crowned
since he joined, but especially
on the female side, where many
of the worlds very best come
from Mexico, has WBF titles been
won by top-of-the line boxers.
“Over
the years, in Mexico we really
have had some great WBF female
world champions”, explains
Sotelo. “Jessica “Kika” Chavez,
Ana Arazola, Irma Sanzhez,
Susana Cruz, Karely Lopez and
Isabel Millan were all WBF world
champions, and currently we have
Mayela Perez.”
“Female
boxing in Mexico is very big.
Fans appreciate all the effort,
will and tenacity that women
bring, and which is sometimes
missing from male boxing.”
“Females
don’t make as much money as
their male counterparts, but in
general they train harder and
give 100 percent in the ring
with some very exciting fights
which the fans appreciate. And
there are many up-and-coming
female boxers here, soon to make
their mark, and the WBF will be
here to support them.”
Sergio Sotelo is very passionate
about boxing, male and female,
and he really wants to help the
sport he loves. He has proved
already that he is not a
quitter, and with him at the
helm in North & Central America,
the World Boxing Federation is
in good hands.
Sotelo still lives in Tijuana
with his wife Martha Raquel, a
bachelor in business
administration, with whom he has
two daughters: Claudia (20) and
Alejandra (16). A proud father,
he makes a point of praising
them for doing very well
academically, in university and
high school respectively.
As they continue on in life, If
they are taking after their
parents, they are almost certain
to continue to make him and
Martha Raquel proud.
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