On Wednesday, USA Boxing, the country's governing body for Olympic boxing, released a letter announcing that the organization has ceased its membership in the International Boxing Association (IBA) and plans to join the newly formed World Boxing International Boxing Federation. (World Boxing), which was launched two weeks ago.
Worldbox has established a provisional executive board that includes Olympic boxing organizations from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and the Philippines.
Mike McAtee, chief executive of World Boxing, said it was a forced move to keep boxing in the Olympics. Prior to that, Boxing USA had been a member of the IBA since 1946.
"[IBA] has demonstrated a failure to uphold its mission and the principles of its charter, and a failure to uphold the Olympic Charter and the movement," McAtey said. "USA Boxing remains committed to the Olympic Movement by following the principles of good governance, promoting neutral third-party oversight of the playing field, denouncing false and misleading information from IBA leadership [and] demanding transparent financial management."
In the past few years, the IBA has had a difficult relationship with the International Olympic Committee. In 2019, the IOC suspended the IBA's license and expressed concerns about the IBA's overall performance and refereeing issues.
Fuel was added to the fire by the fact that the IBA ignored the IOC directive banning Russian and Belarusian athletes from competing under their national flags and anthems. The IBA president, Russian representative Umar Kremlev, has also never hidden his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The IOC took over the organization of the boxing tournament at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and also conducts qualification for the Games in Paris in 2025. Due to ongoing problems with the IBA, boxing is not included in the provisional program for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Although the IOC claims that boxing can still be entered into this Olympics.
For its part, the IBA announced on Wednesday that they had filed a complaint with their own organization's Independent Investigation Department regarding the creation of a rival "Worldbox".
