Pope Francis Blesses and Signs WBC Belt

WBC President and advisor for Ready To Fight, Mauricio Sulaiman, shared that Pope Francis has blessed the WBC belt that will be on the line for the absolute world heavyweight championship fight (over 90.7 kg).

Titleholder Oleksandr Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) and WBC champion Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) will contend for it.

"Pope Francis has a foundation, and I learned about a program called 'Football with Values.' I suggested creating 'Boxing with Values' to him. He immediately agreed and became enthusiastic about boxing. Since then, we've conducted many campaigns and training sessions, aiming to teach values through boxing to thousands of people worldwide. We had the opportunity to meet with Pope Francis before and after the pandemic.

I brought the belt, and he blessed and signed it. The Pope signed one side and told me to sign the other, otherwise, the fighter might think I'm servering for someone specific. He has no favorite. He looks forward to May 18th.

The Pope compared the cobra and the mongoose. The mongoose is a small rodent, the king cobra is the most fearsome snake, yet the mongoose defeats the king cobra. He uses this analogy to say that in life, sometimes you need to know your weaknesses and strengths, use them, and always know your enemy's weaknesses," Sulaiman explained.

Ahead of the fight, Sulaiman presented a special council belt. One side of the belt features the colors of the British flag, and the other, the colors of Ukraine.

The winner will also receive the Undisputed title – the first-ever belt created with the support of all four authoritative professional boxing organizations: WBA, WBC, WBO, and IBF.

The fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury will take place on May 18th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.