NO HOLDS BARRED

First, of course, we at Sycuan Ringside Promotions congratulate Carlos Baldomir on his terrific performance and tremendous victory in capturing the World Boxing Council welterweight championship Saturday night in New York City. We're thrilled by that awesome showing, one that has catapulted both Carlos and Sycuan Ringside Promotions to the forefront of the boxing world.

Sycuan Ringside Promotions also thanks Carlos Baldomir for his inspired effort, one that thrilled boxing fans around the world. It was an effort that proved that determination, dedication, focus and hard work enables a person, not just a boxer, to overcome any obstacle and achieve his or her goal, no matter how daunting a proposition it may appear to be. Carlos put forth a lesson in life, not merely a lesson in boxing.

Next, Sycuan Ringside Promotions and Carlos Baldomir want to express our appreciation to The Ring Magazine, the long-time 'Bible of Boxing,' and Joe Santoliquito of The Ring for joining boxing fans around the world as recognizing Carlos as the undisputed welterweight champion. This is a wonderful tribute since The Ring championship has a storied tradition of tracing title lineage in a weight division. This is a championship that was held by welterweight legends such as 'Sugar' Ray Robinson and 'Sugar' Ray Leonard, and all of us are proud to be part of that history.

Now, let me put to rest all the misconceptions and misinformation that may have arisen regarding Carlos' championship status.

The fight was only for the WBC welterweight championship. Neither Sycuan Ringside Promotions nor Carlos Baldomir were ever contacted or approached by the International Boxing Federation or the World Boxing Association in regards to paying sanctioning fees to those organizations for the right to fight for those titles. Don King was absolutely right when he said that only the WBC championship was at stake.

In fact, Carlos was the WBC's No. 1 mandatory challenger, a right he earned with a win in the WBC's title-elimination bout last May. While it would have been nice had Carlos also been the IBF's and WBA's mandatory challenger as well, the fact remains he was not.

So, any notion or suggestion that Carlos or Sycuan Ringside Promotions were not ready, willing and able to post any sanctioning fees with any organization prior to this fight are both patently absurd and grossly inaccurate.

However, Sycuan Ringside Promotions, pen in hand, is prepared and would welcome the opportunity to write checks to both the IBF and the WBA in the amount of the appropriate sanctioning fees if they want to recognize Carlos Baldomir as their welterweight world champion as well.

Regardless, Sycuan Ringside Promotions joins boxing fans and the media around the world in recognizing Carlos Baldomir for exactly who he is--the undisputed welterweight world champion, the man who beat the man who held three world title belts.

Winning the WBC title means so much to Carlos because, as he pointed out, it came on the 10th anniversary of the death of the greatest boxer Argentina has ever produced, Carlos Monzon.

Carlos dedicated this fight--and now this victory--to his wife and four children; his hometown of Santa Fe; the late, great Carlos Monzon; every man, woman and child in Argentina; and, I quote him here now, 'Argentina's great president, the Honorable Nestor Kirchner.'

And Carlos wants to thank his trainer, the ageless Amilcar Brusa, who also trained Monzon plus 13 other world champions, for his invaluable assistance in making all this possible.

We at Sycuan Ringside Promotions salute Carlos Baldomir--the first welterweight champion ever from Argentina--for his superb accomplishment and look forward to future success.

# posted by Eddie Goldman : 12:38 AM