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As the year slowly gets
underway, the WBF has a
tremendous variety of fights
coming up, and fights which will
see virtually all our officials
in action around the world.
We have fights in South Africa,
Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia,
Zimbabwe, Germany, France,
Norway, USA to mention but a
few, and we thank and look
forward to seeing both old and
new promoters and renewing great
friendships with people from
these places.
We are in talks about our
intercontinental heavyweight
champion Onoriode Ehwarieme,
18-1 with 17 KOs, fighting for
our world title in the next
three months. When I met
Onoriode in Nigeria last year, I
was pleasantly surprised by his
warmth, intelligence and his
soft spoken demeanor.
Surely he cannot be a boxer,
were my initial thoughts. When
he entered the ring, that person
was no more the nice, easy going
guy. He was a killing machine,
as cold as ice!
Less than a minute into the
first round, including the
count, the fight was over and
the durable Ariel Bracamonte
from Argentina was still in
cloud cuckoo land.
We all laughed that referee
Eddie Marshall should refund his
referee’s fee to the promoter as
he only worked for 55 seconds!
We are certainly looking forward
to Ehwarieme fighting for our
title. It should be explosive.
We mostly hear about the big
promoters, but the smaller
promoters are as important.
The lovely lady Sandile Malinga,
of the famous Malinga family in
South Africa, is promoting a WBF
international title fight next
Saturday night, February 29, and
thus far has been one of the
most professional people I have
dealt with in boxing.
A week later, we’re off to
Norway for our WBF world light
heavyweight title fight
featuring local hero Tim Robin
Lihaug - our first of hopefully
many visits to Norway.
I also know that Mirko Scoco and
his team are getting ready for a
massive fight in April with our
star Ema Kozin. Team Kozin are
not only highly professional,
but are such characters that its
always fun to be around them.
We will never forget Olaf, and
as we work harder every day to
keep his legacy alive. I thank
the loyal members who have
united and who continue to work
hard to ensure that the WBF
moves forwards and upwards.
Of course, we have those
‘haters’ who do not wish success
for the WBF. To the loyal WBF
members my heartfelt thanks and
gratitude. You are certainly
appreciated. And to the haters,
the people with essentially
empty lives who believe the
world owes them - I would rather
not lower myself and the WBF to
say anything about their
pitiful, bitter and pathetic
lives. I only wish they can find
happiness in the short lives we
all live.
Until next time,
keep punching.
Howard Goldberg
PRESIDENT: World Boxing
Federation
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