The WBA Family recently lost one of its most emblematic figures of the directorate. The Venezuelan engineer Alberto Sarmiento, who was the Treasurer, supervisor of fights and great friend of those who met him.
The boxing world expressed its pain by Sarmiento’s passing, but his relatives and travel companions have hundreds of stories that summarize who he was. We share some of those experiences.
WBA Legislative Director, Carlos Chávez says that once he traveled to with Sarmiento to a directory in Berlin, they went out to eat and started walking. None of them spoke German, and I asked him “che, where are we going to eat?, and he said, take it easy Carlos, as soon as I read the magical word I will know we arrived. He stopped at a restaurant door and read the word in the menu the word !Eisbein!. I asked him again, Alberto, what is that, and he said “Pork knee and I want it with French fries”.
“Alberto went with me to Niza, France to the Argentinean Juan Martín Coggi title fight. After the weigh in, he invited me for walk on the beaches, recalls Jorge Humberto Klee, Appeal Committee Advisor.
He says that while walking through the French Riviera, they saw some French women,
“Alberto left me the image of his great love for his wife Isa. In each phrase Isa was the main character. He asked me to take pictures of the French women who by custom and tradition are topless. With my camera, dodging the ban, I proceeded to carry out the photographic work”, when they retired, Klee noticed that the photos were blurred but one of them had highlighted eight ladies feed with cute beach shoes” and satisfied Alberto told me: that was what I wanted to see.” I have the model of shoes that I’m going to give to Isa. Among so many beautiful women Isabel was his Queen”.
Nicaraguan Renzo Bagnariol, WBA International Commissioner, defines as “difficult to express all the good things of Alberto. He had many good things and it is hard to enumerate them all. He was an extraordinary friend, always cheerful and joyful. Always ready to help and cooperate in difficult times. He had a unique human value. It was impossible not to like him and cherish him.”
For Bagnariol, the pleasant and not so pleasant anecdotes with Alberto Sarmiento “are many and difficult to enumerate. In my case, I want to remember him simply as AN EXTRAORDINARY FRIEND AND HUMAN BEING. He leaves a great emptiness”.
Continental Director Aurelio Fiengo shares Bagnariol’s opinión. He says “we were friends before that joined to the directorate… that means we knew each other for over 35 years.” He was very strict in the moneys and costs control which was expected of her position”.
Fiengo describes Sarmiento as a “good husband and father, always concerned about their well-being of them. “Whenever we visited him he devoted all his attention and sometimes take us to his Beach House where we could enjoy very much because he also invited our good friend and former President (RIP) Mandry Galindez”, recalls the Director.
“Alberto has always been a man who gained the general recognition of the WBA family and the leaders of other organizations. Peace to his soul and our solidarity to the pain of his family in this day when he will be gone. From a friend that always loved him, his wife and daughters”, says Fiengo and his wife Gladys.
Miguel Prado, WBA rankings Director summarizes his feelings of everyone who met a Sarmiento, “If I keep memories and anecdotes?” Who did not have them with Alberto? He will always be remembered as an excellent treasurer: he would collect with a smile. “Goodbye my beloved friend and colleague”
