Written by Mauricio Sulaiman
WBC President – Jose Sulaiman’s son
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently announced its position on boxing and its future in the Olympic Games.
The IOC has categorically confirmed that the IBA (formerly known as AIBA) will be excluded from any recognition as the international association responsible for the administration of Olympic boxing. Additionally, boxing has announced that it is looking for a new group to gain control of our sport. Otherwise, boxing will be excluded from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Our sport is experiencing its worst ever crisis at amateur level as a result of the terrible management imposed by AIBA for 15 years. Everything began to change when a new president named Wu Qingguo arrived at the Federation. Having chosen the wrong path, they lost interest in the sport and its participants, but only in commercial and economic matters.
AIBA became a manager by signing boxers and a promoter by promoting boxing cards, and its interests were focused on a limited number of boxers in a few countries rather than on global popularization.
The most dangerous change was opening up participation to professional boxers. This is causing many structural problems around the world. There is chaos and anarchy and complete anarchy.
It all started with Rio 2016, where professionals competed, but AIBA's intention was for great champions to participate and thereby achieve great business, resulting in a complete failure and disaster. The world boxing world completely rejected and rebelled against this initiative.
Amateur boxing and professional boxing are completely different. It is completely unacceptable and dangerous for professionals to fight amateurs.
While amateurs fight for three rounds, professionals fight for four, six, eight, ten, or even twelve rounds, so they differ in many factors, including experience, striking power, resistance, and number of rounds.
Professionals gain weight and hydrate in preparation for competition, while amateurs must maintain their weight for weeks in order to compete in tournaments. Amateurs fight for Olympic glory without financial reward, and they are usually very young. On the other hand, professionals earn money and fight for champion glory.
Unable to find a solution to this serious and complex problem, the IOC has ignored and shunned AIBA since 2019, leaving the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2024 Paris Games to be run by an IOC internal committee. That will happen.
The most important issue is to continue to maintain the competition regulations set by AIBA, which now allow any boxer, whether a young amateur or a great professional boxing world champion, to qualify and compete in the Olympics.
There are no criteria to determine the level of a competitor, which is why it is so dangerous in many ways.
The most basic thing about professional boxing is to pay attention to the level of competition and fight four-round boxers against four-round boxers. It's like karate, where your level is designated and defined by the color of your belt. Unlike yellow or brown, white has seven levels (dans) of black belt, and the red one at the top is the master.
Fights between fighters of unequal strength are extremely dangerous, and under the current rules, Saul El Canelo Alvarez could step into the ring and face an inexperienced 18-year-old.
There is a newly formed federation called World Boxing, led by several countries including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and the IOC requires 40 member states to be considered eligible as the sport's international federation. I need it. Its president is Boris van der Vorst and today it is the most solid organization realizing the future of amateur boxing and saving its extinction in the Olympic Games.
Indeed, this April 6 marks another anniversary since the opening of the modern Olympic Games. Boxing began in his 1896, and boxing was incorporated from his 1904. It would be a tragedy for our sport to disappear from one of the most important sporting events in the world, where so many stars have been born in pursuit of professionalism.
AIBA (now called IBA) has become a circus with no head or tail. After numerous attempts to protect their recognition from the IOC, and now completely banned, they are making another twist in their activities. IBA organizes amateur, professional, mixed and semi-professional events in several countries around the world. The conflict is tremendous because they are the promoters, the managers, and even the organization that has already given them the IBA belt.
Let's see how this delicate situation ends. For our part, we will continue to support amateur boxing from the front lines of highly successful programs in Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain, the United States, Nicaragua, Poland, Ukraine, and many other countries.
Did you know that…?
Numerous legendary world champions have come out of the Olympics and, after winning medals, jumped into the professional world to become monarchs. Among them are Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon and Mike Spinks, Oscar, and more. De La Hoya, Roy Jones, and now Vasyl Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk and many others.
today's anecdote
My father was well aware of what was happening at AIBA after the resignation of former president Anwar Chaudhry. Seeing Dr. Wu's unusualness, he decided to establish an Amateur Boxing Committee within the WBC to serve as a safe and reliable platform for the development of large-scale amateur boxing around the world. .
The WBC has supported the creation of amateur boxing programs since the AIBA did not protect most countries and sought to help only a small number of athletes enter the boxing business.
Many members of the WBC are doing a great job on this committee, including Miguel de Pablos, Gil Diamond, Marcos Arienti, Oksana Semenishina, Bismarck Morales, Sampson Lewkovic, Sergio Marquez, and Eric This includes the Mexican group whose leaders include Morales, Perucho Morales and Carlos. Bondo Hernandez, Isaac Mora, Daniel Aceves, Monroy and more.
“Boxers are born in the humblest of beds and it is boxing that gives them the opportunity to become something in life. It is our duty to support them before, during and after they enjoy glory in the ring.” Don Jose Sulaiman always said. My brother Pepe, Rudy Telles, and Nancy Rodriguez founded the Amateur Green Belt Challenge in California, and last Saturday, Steven Navarro, who won an amateur WBC tournament as a child, won a prestigious tournament. He debuted on DAZN with an incredible sixth knockout victory. MatchRoom Promotions Fountain Blue Hotel in Las Vegas.
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