No more time to lose for World Boxing. The new boxing body, launched in April 2023 with the ambition of replacing the IBA within the Olympic movement, is organizing and structuring itself. With a fixed idea, elevated to the rank of priority: convincing the IOC to grant it recognition.
Its new step forward is an illustration of this. World Boxing announced via a press release on Thursday, September 26, the creation of an Olympic commission. Its mission: to strengthen relations with the IOC to try to safeguard the place of boxing in the program of the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
So far, nothing very unexpected. Strengthening its governance by creating an Olympic commission makes sense for an organization whose ambition has been the same since day one: to save the future of boxing at the Summer Games. But the timing, and especially the choice of the president of the commission, speak volumes about World Boxing's desire to furiously accelerate the pace.
The body chose a big name in boxing: Gennadiy Golovkin (pictured above). A silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games, the Kazakh then distinguished himself in the professional ranks, where he was a double world champion in the middleweight category. He currently chairs the National Olympic Committee of Kazakhstan.
His past and present service record speaks for him. Gennadiy Golovkin will have his entries into the IOC, at least in his capacity as president of a national Olympic committee. Anything but anecdotal.
« For me personally, but also for the entire sporting world, it is important to preserve boxing as an Olympic sport, and this will be my first priority, he explained in a press release. I also intend to work closely with the IOC on issues related to boxing's commitment to the Olympic values of honesty, fairness and transparency. I am confident that through joint efforts we will be able to give boxing a new impetus for its development. But there is still much to be done."
Important clarification: Kazakhstan has not joined World Boxing. Not yet. But its membership, and its departure from the IBA, should not be long in coming. The international body explains in the same press release that the Kazakhstan boxing federation has filed an official request to join its ranks. There is no doubt that it will be accepted.
With this new membership, World Boxing will have 45 national member federations. It will add a new Asian country to its list.
The timing? The creation of the Olympic Commission, the choice of Gennadiy Golovkin to chair it, and the upcoming joining of the Kazakhstan boxing federation, come at a time when Asia continues to debate its possible membership in World Boxing.
The Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) met on August 31 in an extraordinary congress in Saudi Arabia to submit the question to a vote of its member countries. Not without surprise, it was decided at the end of the vote (21 votes to 14) to remain loyal to the IBA.
The matter seemed settled and the debate closed. But, as evidence to the contrary, the ASBC has decided to call a new extraordinary congress to bring the subject back to the table. It is to be held on November 23 in Bangkok. A vote will be organized, with the same question. It is not certain that the result coming out of the ballot box will be identical to the first.
World Boxing knows that time is running out. Questioned last month at a press conference at the end of the Paris 2024 Games, Thomas Bach suggested that the decision on whether or not to keep boxing on the programme for the Los Angeles 2028 Games would be taken in the first quarter of 2025. It could even be submitted for approval to the 143rd session, held from 18 to 21 March in Greece.
This would leave World Boxing, its president Boris van der Vorst, and Kazakh Gennadiy Golovkin with just under six months to strengthen their roster, gain IOC recognition and ensure the Olympic future of boxing. That seems like very little.
