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Howard Goldberg was born sixty
years ago, on August 21 of 1957
in beautiful Cape Town. He grew
up to achieve diplomas and
degrees in education, as well as
an MBA on his way to becoming a
teacher, Headmaster and lecturer
before retiring in 2011.
As a youngster he was a
successful sportsman, playing
first league Football and
getting invited to trials in
England, as well as first league
Tennis and first league Squash.
But his main sport and interest
was Chess, where he won many
tournaments and even represented
South Africa at the Maccabiah
Games.
Chess would also eventually lead
him to a life in professional
boxing. The president of the
Cape Town Chess Club was a man
called Simmy Lewis, who also
happened to be one of the best
boxing statisticians ever. He
was also Goldberg´s neighbor for
many years, and soon became a
great friend and mentor.
Lewis, who passed away in 2014
at the age of 97, was the one
who advised Goldberg to get
involved with boxing as a
referee and judge. Having had
one amateur bout in the army,
Howard quickly realized that
this would be one sport that was
not for him.
“I
had that one fight, and I am
glad that I did, but I got hit
too hard and thought that it
would be easier to referee and
judge”, says Goldberg with a
laugh. “I actually won the
fight, but I am not sure how. I
was hit too many times for my
liking, but apparently I hit the
other guy more...”
His sportsman-mentality served
him well as a boxing official,
as he decided to become the best
he could be in that field too.
He went on to referee and judge
more than one hundred world
championship fights, and around
forty South African title
fights.
In 2009 he joined forces with
other accomplished boxing
administrators to restructure
the World Boxing Federation
(WBF), which was established in
1988 but forced to dissolve in
2004. With Goldberg as
President, the WBF has since
reached new heights.
“Our
goal was to bring transparency,
and of course honesty and
integrity to the sport, and with
the World Boxing Federation I
believe we have definitely done
that”, says Goldberg, who
himself promoted boxing for a
few years and also know the
business from that side of the
table.
“I
always believe that everyone we
work with is equally important.
It doesn’t matter if the fight
is in Las Vegas or a Township in
South Africa, we treat the
promoters and boxers with equal
importance, respect and
professionalism.”
While he is the “face” of the
WBF, Goldberg is quick to stress
that the progress of the
sanctioning body is due to
teamwork, first, last, always!
With activity in over fifty
countries world-wide, he is
extremely proud of his team and
committees, and everyone’s
tireless work to promote the WBF
philosophy and brand.
“It
is such a privilege to work with
a group of people who share the
same philosophy, to make boxing
better and more honest. We may
not be at the very top yet, but
we are heading there and we want
to get there while remaining
honest and transparent.”
“I
say this all the time, and
excuse me if I am sounding like
a broken record, but boxing fans
are tired of organizations
creating new titles, every week
it seems, with the sole purpose
being to create more and more
income for themselves.”
“The
Money Belt? It says it all,
really! Silver, Diamond,
Regular, Super, and so on. It
makes your stomach turn, it
honestly does. Besides having no
hidden agenda, we strive to
reduce the number of titles,
keep it at a minimum, so that
they at least become
meaningful.”
On a personal note, Howard met
his wife Mandy, a teacher, in a
cold restaurant and literally
gave her the shirt off his back.
The pair has been married for
twenty-five years now, live in
Cape Town and have two children,
Nicole (23), an occupational
therapist, and Sam (18) who is
in his final years of High
School.
He no longer play Football,
Tennis or Squash, but Goldberg
still enjoys Chess and even
gives back to the community by
teaching the game to
underprivileged school children
from disadvantaged areas in his
spare time, free of charge of
course.
He has also found time to take
up a new sport, Golf, which he
modestly insist he is not too
good at, handicapping between 14
and 24.
With the world-wide
handicap-average for men being
16, Goldberg is still an
above-average golfer when at his
best, so it appears that he is
one of those people who are,
some would say quite annoyingly,
good at every sport he gets
involved in.
Thankfully he has taken his
competitive nature with him into
his position as WBF President,
and thankfully this is a role he
is also very good at.
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