International Boxing Association
The International Boxing Association, previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur, is a sports organization that governs and sanctions amateur and professional boxing matches and awards world and subordinate championships. The president of the organization is the Russian Umar Kremlev. In 2023, the International Olympic Committee expelled the IBA, due to concerns related to corruption, financial transparency, and possible ties to the Russian government.
It is one of the oldest boxing federations in the world, coming into existence after the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IBA's status in the boxing community began to decline in the 2000s, and more so in the 2010s and 2020s; multiple presidencies—such as those of Anwar Chowdhry, Wu Ching-kuo, and Umar Kremlev —have been impacted by governance issues and allegations of corruption, such as concerns over the integrity of officiating and scoring in Olympic boxing. Financial mismanagement during Wu Ching-kuo's tenure caused the association to incur a large amount of unpaid debt, resulting in his departure in 2017, and being issued a lifetime ban in 2018. In June 2019, the International Olympic Committee suspended the association due to governance and financial issues, preventing it from sanctioning boxing at the Summer Olympics; an IOC-organised task force oversaw boxing at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics.
Kremlev was elected in 2020 with a promise of reforms, and the rehabilitation of its relationship with the IOC. Under Kremlev, the IBA instituted a major restructuring of its executive board, introduced a financial assistance program for national federations, added prize money to its World Boxing Championships, and paid off its outstanding debt. It also commissioned an independent report by Richard McLaren that found systemic attempts to manipulate match outcomes for money during the 2016 Summer Olympics. Kremlev's tenure has been controversial, with concerns raised by the IOC over the IBA's increasing ties to Russia after he assumed the presidency, opposition to the independent appointment of judges and referees, irregularities during subsequent presidential elections, and the controversial disqualifications of Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting during the IBA's 2023 world championships.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a group of national federations known as the Common Cause Alliance demanded transparency over the IBA's finances and the Gazprom sponsorship, and pledged continued support for boxing as an Olympic event. In October 2022, the IBA lifted a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing under their national flags, which had been imposed amid the invasion. Its 2023 world championships faced boycotts from a number of countries, and false statements by the IBA claiming that they were an "approved" qualifying path for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The CCA later evolved into a competing amateur boxing federation known as World Boxing. In June 2023, the IOC voted to formally revoke its recognition of the IBA, due to a lack of sufficient progress on addressing governance, finance, and corruption concerns since the original suspension; the IBA became the first international federation to ever be expelled from the Olympic movement. The IOC subsequently granted provisional recognition to World Boxing in February 2025.
The IBA consists of five continental confederations, the African Boxing Confederation, American Boxing Confederation, Asian Boxing Confederation, European Boxing Confederation, and Oceania Boxing Confederation. As of 2021, the IBA included 198 national boxing federations. It organises the biennial IBA World Boxing Championships.
History
1920–2009
During the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, representatives from the national associations of England, France, Belgium, Brazil and the Netherlands met in a preliminary consortium for the foundation of an international boxing federation: The Fédération internationale de boxe amateur. The official foundation has been celebrated on 24 August. Right after, international competitions appeared in the boxing arena, allowing amateurs to compete in well-known tournaments.File:The_Secretary,_,_Shri_Injeti_Srinivas_with_the_representatives_of_Indian_Boxing_Federation__and_Amateur_International_Boxing_Association_.jpg|thumb|Then-AIBA president Wu Ching-kuo with representatives of the Boxing Federation of India in New Delhi, India, 1 March 2017
In November 1946, a consensus was met to give way for the boxing governing body to regain the loss of credibility due to the behavior of some leading officials in World War II. The FIBA was dissolved and the English Amateur Boxing Association in partnership with the French Boxing Federation decided to create the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur. The president of the French Boxing Federation, Emile Grémaux, was elected to the position of President.
Anwar Chowdhry first became president of AIBA in 1986. While he would be one of the longest-tenured in the AIBA's history, it was one marked by criticism over the association's handling of officiating and judging during boxing at the Summer Olympic Games. During a gold medal bout at the 1988 Summer Olympics, American boxer Roy Jones Jr. controversially lost to Park Si-hun of host nation South Korea in a disputed, 3–2 decision, despite Jones' dominant performance throughout the match. Amid allegations of bias in judging, Chowdhry oversaw multiple reforms, including the adoption of computerised scoring, and alcohol screenings for judges and referees.
Despite these changes, controversies surrounding officiating persisted into later Olympics, including accusations of misconduct. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, Daniel Petrov's victory over Onyok Velasco faced allegations of computer scoring irregularities from Filipino media outlets, although other critics felt that while Velasco deserved more points, Petrov was still the clear winner.
The International Olympic Committee began to increase its scrutiny of the AIBA following judging scandals in other Olympic sports, such as figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics. In 2005, the IOC froze US$9 million in funding to the AIBA until it established a "clear timeline and planned actions" for judging reforms; Chowdhry stated that the association was working towards a move to "open" scoring, and was working on changes to how it selects officials ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
In 2006, Wu Ching-kuo challenged Chowdhry for the AIBA's presidency, winning the vote 83-79 at the AIBA Congress in Santo Domingo. The campaign was fraught with controversies, including allegations of bribery from both the Chowdhry and Wu campaigns, and armed bodyguards intimidating voters. Pierre Diakite—a delegate from Mali—was found dead in an elevator shaft at the hotel where the Congress was hosted, and carrying what was thought to be bribe money.
In 2007, AIBA changed its full name to the "International Boxing Association" as part of a rebranding, albeit maintaining "AIBA" as its abbreviated name.
2010–2019
In 2010, AIBA launched the World Series of Boxing, a new semi-professional, international club competition involving teams of amateur boxers. AIBA described the circuit as a "pathway" to professional boxing, aiming to " the broader boxing world and its grassroots amateur foundation." Competitors would be able to maintain their amateur and Olympic eligibility, and the competitions would also offer a qualification pathway for the Olympics. The WSB would be operated by the commercial company WSB SA on behalf of the AIBA; its main investor was Hong Kong-based First Commitment International Trade.In 2011, BBC News reported via whistleblowers that an Azeri national had made a $9 million payment to WSB SA as a bribe, promising two gold medals in boxing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in return. AIBA denied the allegations, stating that the payment was from an Azeri investor and "made on a commercial basis and with a view to a commercial return", and that the report "demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of the procedures which lead to the award of Olympic boxing medals and the impossibility of influencing these."
Scrutiny over officiating would re-emerge during the 2012 Olympics. In a men's bantamweight Round of 16 bout, Satoshi Shimizu of Japan knocked Magomed Abdulhamido of Azerbaijan to the floor six times without referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov ever issuing a standing-eight count; the judges then awarded the victory to Abdulhamidov. The AIBA overturned the result on appeal and dismissed Meretnyyazov from the Games, ruling that the fight should have been stopped and awarded to Shimizu after three knockdowns.
In March 2013, AIBA announced that it would end the mandatory use of headgear in senior men's competitions at the national, continental and international levels effective 1 June; it cited studies finding that headgear actually increased the risk of concussions and head injuries, as they provided a false sense of security by encouraging boxers to make harder punches at their opponent's head or attack with their own head, and that they obscured peripheral vision. The change does not apply to males under 19, nor women, where headguards remain mandatory.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, boxing switched to a 10-point system modelled after professional boxing, with scores counted from a random selection of three out of the five judges after each round, based on criteria such as punches landed and effective aggressiveness. Two results in particular attracted controversy: the defeat of Vasily Levit by Russian Evgeny Tishchenko in the men's heavyweight gold-medal fight, drawing jeers from the audience, and the defeat of Michael Conlan by Russian Vladimir Nikitin in the men's bantamweight quarter-final.
Conlan accused AIBA and the Russian team of cheating; he asked Russian president Vladimir Putin on Twitter, "Hey Vlad, How much did they charge you bro??" The AIBA would remove an unspecified number of judges and referees following the controversy, stating that they "determined that less than a handful of the decisions were not at the level expected" and "that the concerned referees and judges will no longer officiate at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games"; however, the original decision would still remain.
In July 2017, Wu began to face scrutiny over the AIBA's finances, including reports that it was facing demands for repayments from investors such as the Azerbaijani company Benkons and First Commitment International Trade, and only had $7 million in cash on hand. Its treasurer and finance director resigned, while Wu removed of a member of AIBA's executive committee after they raised concerns over irregularities in its finances.
Wu was suspended in October 2017 by the AIBA disciplinary commission, citing his poor financial management and attempts to remove his opponents from the executive committee. On 20 November 2017, Wu announced that he would step down as president effective immediately, with senior vice president Franco Falcinelli replacing him in the interim. In a joint statement, AIBA and Wu stated that they had "amicably agreed to resolve the management issues within AIBA and to withdraw and terminate all related pending procedures before civil courts and AIBA disciplinary commission."
In December 2017, the IOC expressed concerns about the governance of AIBA under Wu Ching-kuo's leadership, and reaffirmed these concerns in an IOC Executive Board decision in February 2018. In October 2018, AIBA issued lifetime bans to Wu and former executive director Ho Kim, after a report documented "gross negligence and financial mismanagement of affairs and finances". In November 2018, Gafur Rakhimov was elected the new president of AIBA, beating Serik Konakbayev.
In June 2019, the IOC voted to suspend its recognition of AIBA as the governing body for the sport, stripping AIBA of any involvement in the Olympic Games. The IOC oversaw the qualification events and the boxing tournament at the 2020 Summer Olympics through a task force chaired by Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation. The task force adopted the AIBA's technical rules, albeit with some amendments to eligibility requirements and to improve transparency in judging and scoring. Rakhimov stepped down on 15 July 2019, amid scrutiny of his presence on a U.S. Treasury Department sanctions list for alleged ties to a criminal organization; he stated that there was an "urgent need for my continued presence in the defence process of the case, which is related to the politicised accusations against me." Mohamed Moustahsane of Morocco served as an interim president during this time.