The World Boxing Council (WBC) will launch its Amateur and WBC Youth Professional Programmes in December in Trinidad in an effort to thwart the International Boxing Association (AIBA) apparent efforts at monopolizing the fistic sport.
Historically, AIBA has governed amateur boxing but a few years ago it began focusing on professional boxing also. Their aim is to exclusively control the amateur and professional ranks.
AIBA is alleged to be using constant threats to the federations who are menaced with expulsion as well as exclusion from the Olympic Games.
According to the WBC and the other professional sanctioning bodies, AIBA is a threat to boxing for new policies they’ve adopted including:
– Prohibiting boxers who are not registered in AIBA to participate in the Olympics.
– Imposing a monopoly
– Restricting the participation of amateur boxers in the Olympics
– Prohibiting countries from participating in the Olympics
– Delivering the Olympics to professional boxers
– Discriminating against countries with lower economic potential
– Prohibiting professional boxers who are not registered
An article appearing in the Trinidad Express on September 1 stated that:
The highest-paid athlete in the world, undisputed welterweight champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather, will head a list of boxing superstars coming to this country to help launch the World Boxing Council (WBC) Amateur and WBC Youth Professional Programmes in three months’ time.
At a media conference at Alicia’s Guest House in St Ann’s, Annabelle Davis, chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board Control (TTBBC), announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the WBC and the TTBBC that was signed last Saturday in Los Angeles by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman and Davis.
Other famous boxers who will make the trip to the WBC convention (the occasion to launch the WBC programmes) to be hosted in T&T are former world champions George Foreman, Oscar de La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions, Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns, Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis.
Renowned promoter Don King is also expected to arrive here for that convention.
Speaking with Stabroek Sport yesterday, President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle noted that he caught wind of the WBC’s intentions through the grapevine and “little is known of what it entails.” He added that more options augur well for the boxers but currently, “the association stands firm behind AIBA and its mandates.”
