World Boxing Council implements Buxo Potts' 'university' of boxing

Buxo Potts, right, with former middleweight boxing champion Marvin Hagler at the 2016 World Boxing Council Convention in Florida, USA.
Buxo Potts, right, with former middleweight boxing champion Marvin Hagler at the 2016 World Boxing Council Convention in Florida, USA.

Boxing promoter and World Boxing Council (WBC) member Buxo Potts has seen his dream become a reality as the WBC has developed a boxing “university” to identify talent, train coaches and ring officials in an effort to improve the sport.

In a media release sent to Newsday, Potts said, “Today is my proudest moment in the sport of boxing.”

Potts is the chairman of the WBC Amateur/World Youth Professional Programme for the Central America and Caribbean Region.

He said he thought of the idea ten years ago and is elated to see it materialize.

“Today marks my crowning achievement in my entire 71 years. In 2011, I had an idea and a vision for boxing, and I went to the then Minister of Sport Anil Roberts of the People's Partnership Government. I presented to him a proposal to take a team to an international conference hosted by the WBC in Cancun, Mexico.”

Potts said he outlined his plans for the programme.

“At that convention, chaired by the late WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman, I made a presentation to the WBC that the organisation should implement for the entire world an international university of boxing to identify talent, to train coaches and ring officials.”

On what the programme will include, Potts said, “At this university, everyone will benefit and by extension the sport of boxing will be greatly enhanced in treating with athletes (both amateur and professional), coaches and all officials in a holistic manner, where athlete safety and nutrition are two of the core principles.

“I announce here today that the WBC, through its bi-annual meeting has sanctioned and brought into fruition the idea presented by Trinidad and Tobago’s son of the soil, to institute an international university of boxing…While the boxing world is on hold waiting for the coronavirus pandemic to pass, the WBC embarked on the opportunity to positively impact many human beings. The WBC and LiberQuare University joined forces to create the world’s first boxing university with the aim of systemising all the accumulation of knowledge that the council generated from 1963.”

Potts said boxing officials, including referees, judges, coaches, cut men, time-keepers, ringmasters and ringside physicians will get the opportunity to be certified, which will in turn produce high-quality boxers. Potts, who said emphasis will be placed on professional boxing, encouraged the TT Boxing Board of Control to partner with WBC to help develop professional boxing in TT.

The courses, which began in early 2020, are reasonably priced. Among the courses available are bout management and supervising and boxing referee level one. The boxing referee course runs for two weeks at a cost of US$116.

Potts said the courses available will allow TT referees to officiate in a world title fight, therefore providing job opportunities.

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