The 102nd edition of the World Boxing Association (WBA) Convention began this Tuesday with the General Assembly, the first official activity of this event held at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Florida. With the presence of the president of the pioneer organization, Gilberto Jesus Mendoza, the entire WBA board met to welcome the hundreds of guests and start the discussions.

Mendoza began with a recognition to the city of Orlando and the growth it has had recently in boxing. He welcomed those present and offered words of thanks to the attendees.

The President highlighted the systematic development of boxing and the growth of fighters from different regions, and spoke about the WBA Future Champions program, a tool that seeks to provide opportunities to young fighters from different countries through monthly events in Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Andorra and Argentina.

Another important point was the regional activity. A summary was given of the activity of each region with the number of fights held and the boxing situation in Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

The director of the judges and referees committee, Luis Pabón, spoke about some details of the rules, especially the scoring. He pointed out that the maximum margin that a judge can score in a round is 10-7, but that in the case of points being subtracted from a fighter it could be lowered to 10-5 to be fairer in these situations.

On the other hand, he showed part of the new ranking system that the WBA wants to implement in the near future. It is a new way of rating the fighters, in a combination of qualitative and quantitative elements that will be tested soon and more details will be provided in the coming months. 

The Assembly was the first meeting of this convention, which will continue until next Thursday, December 14.