The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently expressed its position regarding boxing and its future in the Olympic Games.
The IOC categorically confirmed that IBA, formerly called AIBA, is excluded from any recognition as the international association in charge of administering Olympic boxing. In addition, The IOC announced that it’s looking for a new group to acquire the administration of our sport. Otherwise, boxing will be excluded from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Our sport is going through the worst crisis ever at the amateur level, resulting from the terrible administration the AIBA inflicted for 15 years. When a new president arrived at AIBA, Wu Ching-Kuo, everything changed. They chose to take a path that turned out to be the wrong one, so interest in the sport and its participants ended, but interest in commercial and economic issues was its only concern.
AIBA became a manager by signing boxers and a promoter, as they promoted boxing cards, and its interest was focused on a limited number of boxers from a few countries and not on global massification.
The most dangerous change was opening up the participation of professional boxers. This has caused a lot of structural problems around the world. There is confusion and, disorder and total anarchy.
It all started in Rio 2016, in which professionals competed and caused a total failure and disaster since AIBA intended for the great champions to participate and thus achieve great business. The world boxing community ultimately rejected this initiative, recoiling from it.
Amateur and professional boxing are entirely different, and it is totally unacceptable and dangerous for professionals to fight amateurs.
Many factors are different from one to another, such as experience, hitting power, resistance, and the number of rounds, because while the amateur fights three rounds, the professional fights four, six, eight, ten, and even 12 rounds.
The professional makes weight for a fight and rehydrates, while the amateur has to be at weight for weeks to compete in tournaments. The amateur fights for Olympic glory without financial remuneration and are usually very young. Meanwhile, the professional fights to earn money and seek the glory of being a champion.
The IOC has not been able to find a solution to this serious and complex problem. It has ignored and shunned the AIBA since 2019, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paris 2024 will be carried out by an internal IOC committee.
The most important problem is that they have maintained the competition regulations established by AIBA, and today, any boxer can participate in qualifying and the Olympic Games, regardless of whether it is a young amateur or a great professional boxing world champion.
No criterion determines the competitors’ level, which is why it can be so dangerous in many ways.
The most basic thing in professional boxing is to take care of the level of competition: four-round boxers fight against four-rounders, and so on. It is like in karate, where the colors of the belts specify and define levels. White is not the same as yellow or brown, and in the black belt, there are seven levels (dan), then comes master, which is the red one, at the top of the top.
It is extremely dangerous for unevenly matched fighters to be fighting. As the rules currently stand, Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez can enter a ring and face an 18-year-old young man with minimal experience.
There is a newly created federation called World Boxing, led by some nations such as the United States, Canada, England, and several others. The IOC requires the membership of 40 countries to be considered eligible as an International Federation of Sport. Its president is Boris van der Vorst and today, it is the most solid group to bring the future of amateur boxing to fruition and save it from extinction in the Olympic Games.
Precisely, this past April 6 marked another anniversary of the start of the modern Olympic Games. It was in 1896 when they began, and boxing was included since 1904. It would be tragic for our sport to disappear from the most important sporting event in the world, from which so many stars have emerged towards professionalism.
AIBA, now called IBA, has become a circus without a head or tail. After many attempts to save recognition from the IOC and being completely expelled, they have taken another twist and turn to their activity. IBA organizes events in some countries worldwide, including amateur, professional, mixed, and an aberration event they call semi-pro. The conflict is tremendous, since they are promoters, managers, and in addition, they already give IBA belts, that is, they are also an organization.
We will see how this delicate situation ends. We will continue to support amateur boxing from our trenches with the programs that have been very successful in Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, the United States, Nicaragua, Poland, Ukraine, and many more countries.
