Tag: World Boxing

World Boxing has  appointed Gennady Golovkin as the chair of its new Olympic Commission, charging the former-middleweight world champion with the task of helping the body establish itself as the sport’s recognised international federation.

World Boxing, launched in 2023, has 44 members and is looking to fill the void left behind by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

The IBA was stripped of recognition last year by the International Olympic Committee, which has not included the sport on the Los Angeles 2028 Games programme yet and has urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body to replace the IBA.

Golovkin, once considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world and winner of a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, was appointed president of Kazakhstan’s National Olympic Committee in 2024.

“Golovkin will work closely with World Boxing’s leadership to manage the organisation’s relationship with the IOC and oversee the pathway to ensuring that boxing is restored to the sport programme for the Los Angeles 2028 Games,” World Boxing said in a statement.

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“Other members of the commission will be added in the coming weeks to ensure it is diverse and representative of the global boxing community.

World Boxing added that the Olympic Commission’s main goals would be to bring in new members, ensure financial sustainability and support the IOC’s process for recognition.

“For me personally, as well as for all the sports world, it is important to preserve boxing as an Olympic sport, and this will be my top priority,” Golovkin said.

“I also intend to work closely with the IOC on issues of boxing’s commitment to the Olympic values of honesty, fairness and transparency.

“I am confident that my experience as a professional athlete will help build systemic work within World Boxing, and through joint efforts we will be able to give boxing a new impetus to its development, but there is still much to be done.”

Earlier this month, World Boxing announced that it will host its inaugural world championships in Liverpool next year.

World Boxing will host its inaugural world championships in Liverpool next year, the governing body said  as it continues efforts to establish itself as the sport’s recognised international federation.

World Boxing, launched in 2023, has 44 members and is looking to fill the void left behind by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

The IBA was stripped of recognition last year by the International Olympic Committee, which has not included the sport on the Los Angeles 2028 Games programme yet and has urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body to replace the IBA.

World Boxing’s championships will feature both men’s and women’s competitions simultaneously, unlike the two separate tournaments organised by the IBA. Boxers will compete in ten weight categories, which will be finalized later this year.

The championships will take place from Sept. 4-14 next year.

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“Liverpool is a globally famous city with a proud heritage in boxing and it will be a fantastic place to host our first ever Elite World Boxing Championships,” the body’s president Boris van der Vorst said.

“This will be a superb showcase for the sport of Olympic boxing, particularly as it will be the first time ever that the men and women’s competition will run alongside each other as part of the same Championships.”

The IBA will also be organising two world championships in 2025, with the men’s tournament taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan, while the women’s competition will be held in Belgrade, Serbia.

World Boxing expects more countries to switch allegiance and sign up after a Paris Olympic tournament overshadowed by a power struggle for control of the sport and a gender row in the women’s ring.

The Swiss-registered body, created in April last year, has so far attracted 37 members from five continents compared to around 200 claimed by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped the IBA of recognition last year over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance, and boxing has yet to be confirmed on the 2028 programme.

A shambolic IBA press conference on Monday featured the remote participation of its Russian leader Umar Kremlev making personal attacks against IOC president Thomas Bach.

“The best recruiting sergeant for a new federation was that press conference yesterday,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said . “It will give you an idea why we are in desperate need for a federation to take it forward.

“We hope that those national federations, I think some are already coming together, more after yesterday, and let’s hope they can bring it to Los Angeles.”

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World Boxing said the IOC had made its position clear.

“If they (national federations) want their boxers to have the opportunity to compete at an Olympic Games in the future they need to take immediate steps to join World Boxing,” it said.”This is the only path that will see boxing remain as part of the Olympic Games after Paris 2024 and National federations need to act now and begin the process of applying for membership of World Boxing.”

While IBA have been shut out, World Boxing’s president Boris van der Vorst is attending the Paris Games with talks going on behind the scenes.

World Boxing already has close links to the IOC through its secretary general Simon Toulson, a Briton who previously led the International Canoe Federation and worked in the IOC’s sports department.

Asked by Reuters Television at the weekend whether he was confident the situation would be “back to normal” for boxing by the time of the Los Angeles Games, Van der Vorst said yes.

“More and more federations are applying for World Boxing,” he added, saying keeping boxing in the Olympics was the only reason the body had been established.

The new body had a declared budget of 900,000 euros for its first year with the money raised through donations, membership and some sponsorship revenues.

The IBA website lists Russian state energy firm Gazprom as a general partner, although Kremlev said last year that the sponsorship had ended.