AIBA WANTS CONTROL OF AMATEUR AND PRO BOXERS
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 05 Nov 2007
A great majority of amateur boxers wish to turn professional after they have competed in major boxing tournaments. But the world governing body of amateur boxing wants them to stay. That is why the International Boxing Association hopes to launch its own world league of boxing next year to gather amateurs and professional fighters under one organization.
On the eve of the opening of the World Boxing Championships in Chicago, a qualifying event for the Beijing Olympics, delegates to the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA) congress endorsed a proposal to create its own boxing league.
It's all part of the innovations to clean and solidify the sport under new AIBA president Ching-Kuo Wu of Taiwan, who ousted overstaying head Anwar Chowdhry of Pakistan in last year's election.
?We are producing the best boxers from the Olympic Games and the World Championships, but we want to protect that because after they got their medals, what was the next step? Not just to be taken by the professional promoters,? Wu declared. ?We want them fully protected to develop their career. Once we have our own league, the federations and the boxers will be fully protected.?
Wu hoped to announce the league by the Beijing Olympics next year. USA Boxing chairman Tom Virgets estimated an investment of $200 million to $300 million is necessary to realize this dream. AIBA wishes to start their own league to maintain the quality of the amateur program which is the fundamental program with the professional side as the ?icing.?
There are 195 member federations of the AIBA and nearly 700 boxers from 120 countries attended the opening ceremonies. The biggest star was the greatest boxer of all-time, Muhammad Ali, who received two standing ovations.
England, France, Belgium, Brazil and the Netherlands founded an international boxing federation, The F?d?ration Internationale de Boxe Amateur (FIBA), during the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. International competitions began to grow rapidly.
In November 1946, a fresh start must be imparted to the boxing body in order to regain the loss of integrity due to the behavior of some top officials in World War II. The FIBA is dissolved and the English Amateur Boxing Association and the French Boxing Federation decided to form AIBA, the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur.
AIBA continues to govern boxing in the Olympic Games without using the word "Amateur" anymore. For several years now, amateur boxing has been in existence in all continents with continental championships as well as World Cups and World Championships under the International Boxing Association.
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