THE WORLD BOXING Council (WBC) is considering implementing a rule which would see parent trainers banned from running their fighter’s corner during WBC-sanctioned bouts.
BoxingScene reports that, while cognisant of the father-son dilemma in particular, the governing body is conducting an ongoing pilot program — involving interviews and the gathering of data — following a proposal made at its Miami convention.
The WBC is said to be concerned by the mental dynamic between a boxer and their parent-trainer, where a fighter might push his or herself to dangerous extremes in the ring due to their chief second being their parent — most typically their father.
Equally, it has often been said in boxing that a parent’s judgement might be clouded due to a lack of objectivity, i.e. a parent trainer might refuse to throw in the towel due to an irrational belief in their child’s boxing ability.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman said of the issue:
We believe there is a natural obstacle and we are evaluating what is happening. There is a situation which mixes emotions, and it’s our experience that it is not recommendable to have fathers in the corner.
“Having said that, there are many fighters today, who are working with a parent for a long time, so we are carefully looking into it.
“You are much more demanding of your son for school grades and in any sport, and the son has much more pride in the presence of his father, so he doesn`t give up as dad is right there.”
Somewhat ironically, the two fighters who will compete for the WBC’s vacant World welterweight title this Saturday — Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia — are both trained by their fathers, Kenny Porter and Angel Garcia.
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