Hoping to preserve boxing as part of the Olympic program, USA Boxing and the boxing federations from a handful of countries announced Thursday that they are leaving the sport’s scandal-plagued governing body, the International Boxing Association, to start a new organization called World Boxing.
The International Olympic Committee, frustrated with years of controversies including allegations of match fixing at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, took control of the sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and will do so again for Paris 2024 but has left boxing off the initial program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, putting one of the Games’ longtime core sports in jeopardy.
IOC officials have hinted for months they would like another organization to replace the IBA, whose president, Umar Kremlev of Russia, has been accused of manipulating elections twice to remain in power. World Boxing would appear to meet the IOC’s criteria given that those federations’ leaders have been attempting to reform the IBA in opposition of Kremlev.
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The United States is being joined by the boxing federations of Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the Philippines and New Zealand. World Boxing will initially be led by former IOC and Manchester United executive Simon Toulson, who has also run the International Canoe Federation. American heavyweight boxer Richard Torrez Jr., who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, is one of two athlete representatives on World Boxing’s interim executive board.
The IOC likes boxing because it provides racial, economic and gender diversity that many other Olympic sports do not. Several times in the past year, IOC President Thomas Bach has said boxing has “a pathway” to the L.A. Games if the sport can fix its “governance” issues. But time is running out. The IOC will finalize the Los Angeles program in October, and boxing’s only chance to be included is to have a clear alternative to the IBA.
IOC executives and leaders from several other national boxing federations have expressed repeated concerns that Kremlev, a Russian businessman who has received support from Russia President Vladimir Putin, is not interested in cleaning up the IBA. They worry the organization is being funded primarily by Russian energy company Gazprom, which has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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In a one-sentence statement the IOC said it “takes note of the latest developments.”
USA Boxing Executive Director Mike McAtee has discussed forming a breakaway organization with several other countries since 2019, when the IOC suspended the IBA and took over operation of boxing for the Tokyo Games, a person with knowledge of the situation said. The discussions were put on hold when Kremlev, after being elected in 2020, promised to fix the IBA’s problems.
But after the IOC’s Boxing Task Force ran a well-organized tournament at the Tokyo Olympics free of judging controversies while Kremlev’s promised changes failed to materialize, McAtee, Dutch Boxing Federation President Boris van der Vorst and other federation heads became suspicious of Kremlev’s plans. Last year, van der Vorst ran for IBA president, challenging Kremlev, only to be disqualified by the organization’s ethics commission for early campaigning.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport forced another election last fall; it was canceled when enough member countries — following a power outage delay — voted to not have another vote. In the aftermath, the IOC sternly rebuked the IBA and threatened to cancel boxing at the Paris Games over what it called “grave governance issues.”
USA Boxing’s intentions to leave the IBA became publicly apparent in February when McAtee announced his organization would not send fighters to this spring’s IBA world championships. Held every other year, the world championships are amateur boxing’s second-most-important competition after the Olympics. Several other countries including Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic, also pulled out of the event.
In a letter to USA Boxing members explaining why American boxers will not fight at the world championships, McAtee laid out a series of complaints, including charges that the IBA is not adhering to its own guidelines to eliminate fears of favoritism from referees and judges as well as concerns about the sources of the IBA’s funding.
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“IBA leaders have failed to follow the recommendations of their own experts, which provided a clear pathway for athlete inclusion, fair play, proper governance, financial transparency, and responsibility,” McAtee wrote.
World Boxing will begin taking applications from other countries in May and is hoping to win recognition from the IOC in two years. On Thursday, van der Vorst, who is part of World Boxing’s interim executive board said that “based on the discussions we’ve had, several boxing organizations will join us.”
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