BERLIN (Reuters) – World Boxing, a new body seeking International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognition to run the sport, announced the approval of six new members on Thursday, piling more pressure on the suspended and embattled International Boxing Association (IBA).
The national federations of Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Honduras and Sweden joined the new breakaway sports body, bringing the total number of members to 12.
World Boxing launched in April with a mission to keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic movement amid fears it might be excluded from future Games over the IBA’s failure to implement reforms.
“World Boxing continues to attract high calibre national federations that want to emulate our principles and endorse our policies to put the boxers first and operate with rigorous governance practices,” World Boxing Secretary General Simon Toulson said in a statement.
“We are receiving more and more interest and requests from National Federations and boxing organisations to join World Boxing on a weekly basis.”
New Zealand Boxing, Boxing Australia, England Boxing, GB Boxing and the Dutch Boxing Federation as well as the United States are already members.
The IOC has stripped the recognition of the Russian-led IBA over its failure to meet a set of governance, financial and sports reforms.
It had already suspended the IBA in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues.
Full members of World Boxing will have voting rights at the inaugural congress in November.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
