WSB Finals Gloves awarded to talented fans

WSB 13-14 Week 7 Ita vs Alg

World Series of Boxing (WSB) recently ran a competition on our social media platforms, with the opportunity for fans of WSB to win a pair of gloves from the now legendary Season IV Finals between Cuba Domadores and Azerbaijan Baku Fires.

Entrants either had to send us a picture of themselves with their best boxing pose, or they had to send us in a written piece they had written about what WSB meant to them.

Although WSB is incredibly popular all over the world, the inundation of entries was still surprising, as many WSB fans sent us emails and tweets with their creative responses.

With Franchises from four continents competing in the tournament, the widespread nature of WSB was further confirmed with the geography of our competition participants, as pictures and articles zoomed into our inbox from all over the world, encapsulating the universal appeal of WSB.

Articles were received in many different languages including Arabic, English and Spanish, and our international team was able to enjoy each and every entry.

In order to conduct an unbiased evaluation, the team as the WSB Headquarters set up a jury for the judging of the contest, which was made up of the people behind the scenes who make WSB the success it is today.

The multi-national jury conscientiously reviewed all of the pictures and articles, and came up with a list of gold, silver and bronze “medallists” of the two contests, with the gold medallist of each category awarded the gloves.

In the photo contest, the jury has selected three winners, although whittling down all the fantastic entries proved tough.

Third place was awarded to twitter user @egkefalikos, who sent a picture of himself duelling with a toy kangaroo. The WSB team appreciated the enjoyable landscape, and the message of the picture, which signified the fun of boxing, and the idea that anywhere is a training ground for the stars of tomorrow.

Second place goes to the contestant Pavlin Netsov, who sent us a picture of himself from his first boxing competition in 2003 in Bulgaria, where he finished second.

This picture was a nice reminder that a boxing career can start at any time, and it is not age that shows the soul of a fighter, but their heart and desire.

The first place, and the prize goes to Michael Biester, who created his picture in a wax museum in his boxing robe and gloves next to the great Muhammad Ali, the winner of the gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

All at WSB appreciated the artistry of this contestant, who deserves the gloves for that reason.

The writing contest was equally talent-filled, and our judges read, and re-read each article with great care, and with no small degree of awe!

In third place was an entrant by a Sweden-based 17 year old boxer named Amir Salim who appreciates the WSB format, and even dreams one day of trying his own talents out in the innovative competition.

The young boxer explained in his story that as an athlete he thinks of the WSB as “being a part of something great”.

We are happy to award the bronze for his riveting story, and hope one day to see him inside a WSB ring competing.

A dedicated WSB and Mexico Guerreros fan named Jovan Gonzalez was awarded the silver spot by the jury, as a result of his passionate article about his love for the competition.

Jovan shared in his story an anecdote about how he came to find out about WSB, through one of his favourite fighters, Vasyl Lomachenko.

After his first fight against Samuel Maxwell I was completely hooked. I started searching, and the format, the teams, the fighters, all blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that the best boxers in the world were all fighting in just one league. But the thing that shocked me the most was that it had a Mexican team!

Jovan continued his story by reminiscing about his experience of seeing WSB live, as he saw the semi-final of Season III between his beloved Mexico Guerreros, and Astana Arlans Kazakhstan.

In Season IV it was amazing to see the debut of the Cuban team, and how they completely removed the competition. I cannot wait for Season V, with three new teams, including the return of the Chinese team, and to see who are the ones who have the ability to reach the Olympic Games in 2016.

Thank you WSB for providing a place and opportunities to the fighters, and thank you WSB for the fights, excitement, quality and boxing.

Such a wonderfully written piece would have won many competitions, but after days of discussion, the best written content awarded by unanimous decision was a piece by former athlete Jay Vaananen, who shared an emotional story about how WSB helps him to educate his five year old child.

His beautiful words saw him clinch gold, and the beautiful gloves of the Season IV Finals, and can be read immediately below.

Dad, what’s that flag?” asked my five year old son while climbing on to my lap to see what I was looking at on the iPad.

After 20 years away from the sport of boxing I had recently found it again as a spectator. A week earlier I had taken my son to watch a local amateur boxing tournament and my father had also come with us. Three generations from the same family together, enjoying a globally recognized sport. After returning from the tournament my son had called it “the best day ever”. For a father these words melted my heart.

A few days after the tournament, I had discovered the World Series of Boxing while browsing for boxing news on the web. I was on the WSB website when my son asked me about the flag.

“It’s the Mexican flag” I replied “That’s the Mexican boxing team”

“Where’s Mexico?” He asked. Just like a child, ever inquisitive, always following an answer with a question. I explained to him where Mexico was and after each answer he had another question about Mexico: What language do they speak? What food do they eat? Do they make cars? Do they train hard at boxing? When is their bedtime?

He also wanted to see them box so I went to Youtube and found the match of Mexico vs. Algeria. We sat there, father and son together as this time he asked about Algeria’s language, cuisine, motor industry, boxing training methods and their bedtimes.

It was clear that he obviously enjoyed watching the sport, but to him, it was much more than just boxing, it was whole new world of countries and places he didn’t know but wanted to learn about. He particularly liked the flags and the team logos. It dawned on me that this was also a great opportunity for me, as a parent, to teach him about the world and sporting values.

It was that evening that I subscribed to the live and on demand World Series Boxing. The boxing cards became a thing we did together, days before the teams would meet, my son and I would learn about the countries whose match it was, their history, language and culture. He would draw pictures and flags of the teams himself and then we’d watch the matches together, him sitting on my lap, eyes wide with wonder asking the same questions over and over “Who do you want to win daddy?” “Who’s the best boxer daddy?”

So what does World Series of Boxing mean to me? It helps me to be a better parent. It’s the chance for me to teach my son about the world, its people, and culture, about fair play, hard work and dedication. Even more important than that, it gives me the opportunity to spend time with my son and watch a sport I love and share those moments of enjoyment with him, passing on to another generation the values that boxing personifies.

The whole team behind WSB would like to thank all the participants of the contest for their great ideas, and continued support, and we are looking forward to having you with us every step of the way of the Season V.

Enjoy the action, and don’t forget to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and to subscribe to our YouTube channel!