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I have always had a great
passion for boxing since being a
young boy and it was always my
ambition to ensure that boxing
played a major role in my life.
Nowadays, people often tell me
that my life as President of the
World Boxing Federation (WBF) is
incredible and glamorous. Well,
to be quite honest, I wouldn’t
want to change anything in my
life, but “always incredible and
glamorous” – I’m not so sure
about that!
Allow me to take you into my
life during my last overseas
trip two weeks ago.
I was off to one of my favorite
destinations, South Korea, where
I would meet up with my very
good friend Hoosik Choi. It was
my eighth visit to Korea and all
of them thus far had been
outstanding with no problems
whatsoever.
Every time things had always
gone smoothly and I had always
been impressed by the
professionalism, punctuality and
hospitality of the Korean Boxing
Association (KBA) and the Korean
people in general.
This latest trip, I had assumed,
would be no different. As I left
my home in Cape Town on the
Wednesday afternoon, I had left
my family with winter flu, and
was lucky enough not to have
caught any bugs – or so I
thought.
An overbooked ten-hour flight to
Dubai, a quick coke in the
lounge, and then the next
nine-hour flight to Seoul.
Though I arrived safely, of
course for some reason my
luggage had gone missing, but
luckily appeared after some
inquiries. As usual I was
collected on time and taken to
the hotel close to Seoul.
It was now 20.00 h in the
evening in Korea (South African
time was 13.00 h) and I would be
collected the next morning at
10.00 h for the weigh-in. Of
course my body was telling me it
wasn’t time to sleep so I
proceeded to work through the
night.
Finally, I felt ready to have a
few hours sleep, only to realize
that it was morning here and
that I was going to be collected
in about an hour! I had bought
new shoes in Cape Town, opened
the box to find to my horror
that both shoes were left
footed!
The only other shoes I had with
me were my black Nike running
shoes which I thus had to use at
the weigh-in. Luckily, sitting
at the table there was no
visibility of my “smart”
footwear.
I had told Hoosik that I needed
to buy shoes urgently before the
fight, and he very kindly told
me not to worry and that he had
a spare pair which would fit me.
Often the phrase “size counts”
is used and in this case, my
size 7 foot differed greatly
from Hoosik’s size – 13 foot!
Nevertheless, I used the spare
pair and survived the evening. I
have subsequently returned to
the shop in Cape Town where I
purchased the shoes, and have
been given a new pair (left and
right!) together with a massive
apology.
Fight night went well, with an
excellent fight and again
superbly organized by the KBA
under the chairmanship of Jung
Pyo Kim, our WBF Asia-Pacific
Chairman.
Time to go home and as fate
would have it, the flu that had
been prevalent in my family had
now been handed down to me. Sore
throat, unable to swallow,
blocked ears and a running nose.
I wondered whether they would
actually allow me to fly but
they did and again I survived to
tell the story.
I arrived back in Cape Town
after a collective 23 hours in
the air. Time to slow down, I
thought, and maybe spend a few
days in bed recuperating. Not to
be. One day later I was told
that I would be on a plane in 24
hours time to Johannesburg for a
WBF intercontinental title
fight.
All of my trips to foreign
countries have featured
adventures, mostly good but
occasionally horrific and
perhaps one future column will
tell the story of me standing in
front of a plane on Nairobi
airport refusing to allow a
plane to leave until they
brought me the WBF belt they had
confiscated. But that’s for
another time.
Boxing has been an incredible
journey for me full of stories
and full of some of the most
fantastic people in the world. I
am lucky to wake up every day
and know that unlike many people
I am in a job which is my
passion.
Until next time, keep boxing.
Howard Goldberg
PRESIDENT: World Boxing
Federation
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