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≡ WORLD BOXING EXPANDS ≡
“The Executive Board of World Boxing has approved six more membership applications from the National Federations for boxing in Kosovo, Syria, Hungary, Malawi, Estonia and Switzerland to take its membership to 78 countries.
“The confirmation of Hungary as the 75th country to have its membership application approved by World Boxing’s Executive Board means that the International Federation has achieved one of the widely established criteria for Olympic inclusion, that a sport must be practiced in at least 75 countries on four continents.”
The Tuesday announcement brings the World Boxing group to at least six members from all five continental groups:
● 24: Asia
● 23: Europe
● 18: Americas
● 7: Oceania
● 6: Africa
These new applicant federations will be formally reviewed and set for approval at the online World Boxing Extraordinary Congress on 1 March.
With 78 federations and more in the pipeline, the status of World Boxing for recognition by the International Olympic Committee at its 144th Session in Greece in mid-March is growing stronger by the day.
The 78-federation total also corresponds very well to the number of federations which have actually sent boxers to the AIBA/IBA World Championships across the last 10 years:
Men:
● 2015: 73 federations/260 boxers ~ 10 classes
● 2017: 85 federations/279 boxers ~ 10 classes
● 2019: 78 federations/365 boxers ~ 8 classes
● 2021: 88 federations/510 boxers ~ 13 classes
● 2023: 107 federations/538 boxers ~ 13 classes
(Average: 86 federations per event)
Women:
● 2016: 64 federations/285 boxers ~ 10 classes
● 2018: 62 federations/277 boxers ~ 10 classes
● 2019: 57 federations/224 boxers ~ 10 classes
● 2022: 73 federations/310 boxers ~ 12 classes
● 2023: 65 federations/324 boxers ~ 12 classes
(Average: 52 federations per event)
Moreover, despite World Boxing being less than two years old, it now has more than half of the federations, boxers and medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games affiliated:
● 68 federations: 37 now in World Boxing (54.4%)
● 32 federations won medals: 18 now in World Boxing (56.3%)
● 248 boxers: 152 from federations now in World Boxing (61.3%)
● 52 boxers won medals: 30 from federations now in World Boxing (57.7%)
All these things point to World Boxing being in position to being recognized by the IOC in March, to be the governing body for Olympic boxing.
And if so, the IOC can give World Boxing more than a handshake. It has retained the $17.31 million television rights share from Tokyo 2020 that was not paid to the International Boxing Association due to its suspension; that could go to World Boxing to help get its operations for 2025-28 started.
And World Boxing could also receive perhaps about $19 million in IOC television money from the Paris 2024 Games to support Olympic boxing going forward. That’s $36 million-plus as a thank-you for rescuing boxing for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Many more federations will come aboard if World Boxing is recognized by the IOC, but the new federation appears to have done enough to give boxing its place in Los Angeles, something which looked very much in jeopardy after the IBA was excommunicated in 2023.
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