(SEPT 24)  This week WBA World Super Bantamweight Champion Mayerlin Rivas posted an open statement/letter about the sport with the Venezuelan Boxers, and more.  Eddie Montalvo translated the letter in English, and WBAN received permission to publish it.

 Mayerlin wrote the following:

VENEZUELAN BOXERS

Lately I see a lot of boxing talent in my Country, but now I also see more people taking advantage of those talents... A lot of new “talent hunters” instead of "supporting" only seek to take even more from the boxer.

A number of managers and promoters tainted by meanness and the desire to exploit those guys with a pay that is undoubtedly a shame and the worst without optimal conditions for adequate training and then they demand and speak bad of the boxer when the boxer does not perform abroad, some managers only care about money regardless of whether they ruin a boxer’s career!

A regrettable and profound disappointment I feel when I see those young people with so much talent who have to do everything to survive in boxing and succeed for their dreams and above all put up with those who use and abuse them just because they are the ones who can get an opportunity to fight.

Complete sadness as a boxer to find so much disrespect for the boxer, so much humiliation towards people who have stood up for the country inside and outside representing Venezuela.

Completely outrageous that you make a complaint and say that you are no longer humble because you need optimal conditions and enforce your rights.
 
Even more terrible is the indifference of those of us who are the VOICE OF VENEZUELAN BOXING and the worst mistake is that BAD CUSTOM of destroying oneself between boxers, managers, etc.

That bad mania that everyone believes they envy, that if you win they hate you and you are highlighted and if you lose you are useless and your career has already died.   That that they are the elites and that nobody else deserves the opportunity to grow and above all the absolute hypocrisy that when boxers go to fight they put them up but then the sad reality is that move them the boxers like one more toy.

What I miss about Argentina is the absolute commitment not only of the boxing fan but also of those great coaches and managers who give everything for the fighter and take care of them making their career monetarily worthwhile of course, but also above all a successful athlete.