Round 12: The future of Olympic boxing

8 April, 2024

Round 12: The future of Olympic boxing

By Mauricio Sulaimán – President of the WBC – Son of José Sulaimán

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, it 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 that the AIBA has inflicted for 15 years. When a new president arrived at said federation, Wu Ching-Kuo, everything began to change. 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 were 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, which caused a total failure and disaster, since AIBA’s intention was for the great champions to participate, and thus achieve great business. The world boxing community completely rejected this initiative, recoiling from it.

Amateur and professional boxing are completely 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, the number of rounds, because while the amateur fights three rounds, the professional fights four, six, eight, 10 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 they 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, as well as 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.

There is no criterion that determines the level of the competitors, and that 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 black belt there are 7 levels (dan), then comes master being the red one the top of the top.

It is extremely dangerous for unevenly matched fighters to be fighting and as the rules currently stand, Saúl El 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, IOC requires the membership of 40 countries to be considered eligible as an International Federation of a 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, and from which so many stars have emerged towards professionalism.

AIBA, now called IBA, has become a circus, without head or tail. After many attempts to save recognition from the IOC, and now being completely expelled, they have taken another twist and turn to their activity. IBA is organizing events in some countries around the world, of an amateur, professional, mixed and an aberration 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. For our part, 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.

DID YOU KNOW…?

A large number of legendary world champions came out of the Olympic Games, after obtaining their medal they jumped to professionalism to become monarchs, some of them are: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon and Mike Spinks, Oscar de la Hoya, Roy Jones, and the current Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk, among many others.

TODAY’S ANECDOTE

My dad was very aware of what was happening in AIBA, after the departure of former president Anwar Chaudry. Seeing the aberrations of Dr. Wu he decided to create the Amateur Boxing Committee within the WBC, in order to serve as a safe and reliable platform for the development of massive amateur boxing around the world.

The WBC has helped create amateur boxing programs, since the AIBA unprotected most countries, and only seeks to support a handful of fighters to get into the boxing business.

Many members of the WBC have done a great job on this committee such as Miguel de Pablos, Jill Diamond, Marcos Arienti, Oksana Semenishina, Bismarck Morales, Sampson Lewkowicz, Sergio Márquez and groups in Mexico with leaders such as Érik and Pelucho Morales, Carlos Bondojo Hernández, Isaac Mora, Daniel Aceves, Monroy and many more.

“The boxer is born in the most humble beds, and it is boxing that gives them the opportunity to become someone in life; It is our obligation to support them before, during and after their years of glory in the ring,” Don José Sulaimán always said. My brother Pepe, Rudy Téllez and Nancy Rodríguez created the Amateur Green Belt Challenge, in California, and last Saturday, Steven Navarro, who as a kid won said amateur WBC tournament, debuted on DAZN, with a tremendous 6 rd Knockout victory at the luxurious Fountaine Bleu hotel in Las Vegas in a MatchRoom promotion.