The WBC president discussed the upcoming showdown between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, admitting the winner should fight Agit Kabayel for the WBC heavyweight title.
Mauricio Sulaiman previews Conor Benn’s upcoming fight against Ryan Garcia in Las Vegas for the WBC welterweight world championship, revealing that Benn ‘demanded’ the governing body make him mandatory for the fight.
The WBC president also discussed Agit Kabayel’s first heavyweight title defence, admitting Frank Warren and Spencer Brown will decide his opponent before revealing he would ‘absolutely’ make Kabayel fight the winner of Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua. Fury is the clear favourite in the boxing betting to beat Joshua in their prospective bout.
Sulaiman also spoke about the legacies of Katie Taylor and Nevada’s International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Gennady Golovkin.
The Nevada International Boxing Hall of Fame saw Gennady Golovkin as one of the fighters inducted. How much of an icon has he been for the sport?
Yes, it’s a tremendous class for 2026. Very unfortunately, I could not be there this past weekend.
But Gennady Golovkin without doubt, he’s a fighter of an era. He dominated the middleweight division in a very special way, then came up to super middleweight. And now he’s a leader of boxing outside of the ring. So, it is very important, his presence and his legacy continues to carry on.
He was a fighter who knew he needed to go out and give his best and the spectacle that he always provided was tremendous. He had a tremendous punching power, great chin, and I believe that the three Canelo fights, the first two Canelo fights were spectacular.
In the third one, he started slow and then closed up when he was a little bit late, but the first two Canelo fights were simply spectacular. He was and is always a great champion, who I always remember with great empathy, great friendship.
Ryan Garcia v Conor Benn takes place in September for the WBC welterweight title, how exciting is this fight going to be?
I am very excited. It’s a fight that the WBC had a tremendous influence in the making if you recall. It is very usual to forget what happens at the time.
Conor Benn was hugely mistreated, unjustly treated because of some banned substance with an adverse finding. The WBC cleared him, way in advance of the case and he still suffered tremendous actions against him for a couple of years.
We stood by him, we kept in communications with him all the time, and last year, he demanded the opportunity to fight for the WBC welterweight championship. Even though his two last fights were in middleweight, the WBC has had the confidence in him and his word and his wishes. So, we named him mandatory contender.
Ryan Garcia has become the greatest ambassador of the WBC. He brings the belt with so much pride everywhere. It’s going to be a tremendous battle in September under the national date for Mexican Independence Weekend in Las Vegas.
Dana White and Zuffa Boxing are promoting the fight and have refused to mention it is for the WBC world title. Does this annoy you and will you be at the fight?
I’m not going get into something unnecessary. If they want to do the hard work without the WBC’s presence, that’s their decision to do so. Every promoter does their own artwork [for posters to promote the fight].
Some put the belts, some put that WBC, some put the logo on there. We are always promoting the events. We’re going to be promoting this fight as we always do, supporting the promoters, and it is something that we have no say in for the official artwork from the promoter, that’s what they do. I will be there at the fight, absolutely.
Who will be Agit Kabayel’s first fight as WBC heavyweight champion?
We have given opportunity to Queensberry and Spencer Brown to try to find the best match possible for his debut as full world champion.
We’ll wait for a few more days to see if they have something in place. If not, then the WBC will come in a ruling.
Would you be open to making Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua a WBC eliminator with the winner fighting Kabayel next?
That would be sensational. The WBC would absolutely approve that as a final eliminator, because Tyson Fury is the number one contender of the division. And the WBC absolutely would be proud to be part of that promotion.
Both fighters are tremendous. Tyson Fury is one of the greatest ambassadors ever of the WBC. We are so proud, he has always been very friendly, very kind, inside and outside of the ring.
Anthony Joshua, he was the first ranked by the WBC when he started boxing. He was number two contender. When he had the opportunity from the IBF [to fight Charles Martin], he had to go the other way and that he was the WBC International Champion for several years, but that’s the way boxing is. Maybe this will be the time to bring Anthony Joshua to the WBC.
Do you have any new innovations that you may implement moving forward similar to football with VAR?
Well, we’ve been working very hard in instant replay, VAR. It’s finally getting into more jurisdictions. The British Boxing Board of Control is evaluating whether they would accept it or not.
California and other states are not yet using it. Nevada, New York, and most countries use it. Open scoring is big now it has been used in Las Vegas for the first time.
So, we have a few things that we did at the WBC Grand Prix that were good pilot tests, like the 30-second buzzer. We made a poster [showing the scorecards] 30 seconds before the end of the round. That picked up the action very much.
Also, the referees take a break after the bell, to take a minute, and to have a runner pick up the cards from the judges inside the ring, not outside. It’s a little bit complicated to go outside. So, we have many things on the plans.
We’re trying different things, the 12-ounce gloves with the heavyweights and we are just trying to continue to make boxing better and safer all the time.
Katie Taylor is preparing for her final fight next month at Croke Park. Where does she rank in terms of the greatest Irish fighters in boxing history?
She has been such an unbelievable icon, a legend and a Hall of Famer without a doubt. And I’m just so proud of Katie Taylor and the WBC has been closely associated.
We have prepared an unbelievable belt for the farewell fight that we’re going to be slowly showing to the public, but I’m very excited for her. She deserves the best, and to fight in 80,000 people at Croke Park stadium, to say goodbye to a career is something that just very few can say.
You have Barry McGuigan, Wayne McCullough, Carl Frampton, Steve Collins and so many great fighters coming from such a boxing country, but she’s at the top, right there at the top. She has so much talent and so does Ireland as a boxing nation but for me she is the greatest.
