A new global amateur governing body, “World Boxing”, is attempting to seize control over the amateur boxing scene after the International Boxing Association (IBA) caused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban boxing from the upcoming 2028 Olympics, set to be held in Los Angeles, California.
The IBA, also known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA) is undoubtedly one of the most notorious boxing bodies in the sport’s entire history after a slew of corruption and other questionable cases led to the IOC excluding boxing from the 2028 Olympics. The IBA, currently led by Russian Umar Kremlev, has existed since 1946 and has been integral to the to amateur boxing, having been considered the primary organization to sanction all amateur boxing bouts since it was formed.
However, the IBA has had a checkered past over the past decade or so, particularly as it pertains to the 2016 Rio Olympics after an independent report from Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren discovered that bouts ahead of and during the 2016 Olympics were manipulated, Ironically, the IBA itself allowed and approved of McLaren’s independent investigation which heaivly implicated IBA staff, and even referees and judges, to have played a role in matchfixing.
This corruption reportedly started as early as the 2012 London Olympics and onwards―with the Rio Olympics serving as a “practise ground for the corruption and manipulation of bouts at Rio” where the Olympic qualifiers was used for the IBA’s methods of corruption and manipulation to be “fine tuned in anticipation of use in Rio“.
One notable boxer heavily implicated in this report of having [unknowingly] benefitted off the IBA’s corruption is French heavyweight (200+ lbs) gold medalist Tony Yoka (13-3, 10 KO’s) whose final gold-winning bout againt Joe Joyce and earlier qualifying matches were highlighted within McLaren’s report as having been possiblyt manipulated.
Prior to this report, the IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 from having any influence over Olympic qualifiers and the final stages of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, monitoring and sanctioning every Olympic boxing bout up to the finals of the 2020 Olympics themselves. This practice continued even leading up to and during the recent 2024 Paris Olympics. The reasoning for this suspension was based on a combination of legal, financial and ethical concerns the IOC held regarding the IBA.
In 2023, the IOC would later reference these same issues to justify their removal of their recognition of the IBA as a global boxing body, which allowed the 2022-formed World Boxing to ramp up efforts to fill the void. While the IBA still operates as the primary body for sanctioning amateur bouts, World Boxing has gradually spread influence over the past couple of years and has contributed to allowing boxing to remain in the 2024 Olympics.
Though regarded by the IBA as a “rogue organization”, World Boxing currently 44 nations as part of its membership as it attempts to re-establish relations with the IOC. Run by Dutch president Boris Van der Vorst, a former opponent of Umar Kremlev prior to his election in 2020, World Boxing is now aiming to restore boxing to the 2028 Olympics after the IOC’s decision to ban it from the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in 2023.
World Boxing is currently set to run its first inaugural competition next year in 2025, the “World Championships”, from September 4 to September 15, but its efforts to bring boxing back to the 2028 Olympics have yet to result in boxing’s restoration to the competition. However, the non-profit organization is steadily gaining steam, serving very much as a viable alternative to the Russian-led IBA―as evident when the IOC advised its subsidiary body, the National Olympic Comittee (NOC) to severe ties with IBA.
The World Body is therefore considered one possible alternative to replace the IBA in time and resurrect boxing to the 2028 Olympics, with former unified middleweight (160 lbs) champion Gennady Golovkin, currently the president of Kazakhstan’s own NOC, recently named chair of World Boxing’s Olympic Commitee to serve as the fundamental catalyst in restoring boxing to the upcoming Los Angeles Olympics.
Nations represented in World Boxing include prevalent countries such as the United States, England and Japan whose respective national boxing governing bodies are represented within this organ.
