Professional Boxing Federations bare fists in anticipation of AIBA draconian initiative

Jul 23, 2013 Sports

By Michael Benjamin
A recent ruling by the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) to launch its own league of professional boxers and allow them to compete in the Olympics has raised the ire of local officials and President of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) and the Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE), Peter Abdool is fuming while saying that the time has arrived to join with other world boxing organizations to debunk the move.

Peter Abdool

The GBBC boss is credited with initiating moves to create a more competitive environment for local boxers after launching the monthly Guyana Fight Night boxing cards where local pugilists engaged in combat for local and Caribbean accolades en-route to prestigious international acclaim.
Just when the Abdool’s initiative seemed to be bearing fruit, the recent disclosure coming out of the AIBA stands to disrupt the hard work and the GBBC boss has joined with several reputable boxing organizations worldwide in condemning the intended admittance of professional boxing to the Olympics. Mr. Abdool feels that the move smacks of AIBA’s monopolistic behavior and an unconcerned approach to the well-being of amateur fighters worldwide.
Consequently, the GBBC boss feels that the time has arrived to join with other boxing organizations to debunk the move of the AIBA. To this effect he has petitioned several world bodies for support in stymieing the move. Those other entities include the World Boxing Council (WBC) and its President Jose Sulaiman, the European Boxing Union (EBU), the African Boxing Union (ABU), the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC), the North American Boxing Federation (NABF), the Asian Boxing Council, the World Boxing Organization (WBO), world renowned manager and promoters, Don King and Gary Shaw as well as other concerned boxing promoters and boxing organizations worldwide.
Mr. Abdool is calling for the condemnation of the intended admittance of professional boxing to the Olympics coupled with AIBA’s monopolistic behavior and apparent unconcerned approach to the well-being of amateur fighters.
He explained that boxing at the Olympic level has traditionally been closed to professional boxers for many reasons, principal among them being safety issues. The GBBC President remains adamant that unlike basketball and many other professional disciplines admitted to the Olympics, the vast difference in experience between the professionals and the amateurs merely results in at worst, a great disparity in points. He further pointed out that boxing is a contact sport and amateur boxers competing against their professional counterparts risk serious body injury, permanent disability and death.
The professional league that AIBA advocates is hinged on amateur and professional boxers being able to compete in the Olympics provided that they sign with that body. Mr. Abdool is also contending that it amounts to little more than AIBA using the authority granted to it by the International Olympic Association as its International Federation for boxing, to impose its will on young amateur boxers and seasoned professionals alike by the granting or withholding of access to an opportunity to participate in the Olympics.
Another prerequisite that fighters must abide to is that they must sign with the ruling amateur body and Mr. Abdool is adamant that this compromises the integrity and validity of an Olympic gold medal. “In the global arena of ethical and fair competition, this would be regarded as extremely manipulative and coercive behavior which in my opinion cannot be categorized as less than a most unfair trading practice,” exhorted Abdool. He said that this is particularly so as the move seeks to completely monopolize both aspects of boxing to the detriment of professional boxing promoters and organizations all over the world.

Steve Ninvalle

Mr. Abdool said that when all is taken into consideration, he cannot fathom the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) laissez-faire approach to the issue since that entity has the potential to eventually bring them(the IOC) into great disrepute.
“This appears to be a carefully contrived scheme by AIBA to control all aspects of global boxing for selfish monetary gains and is hardly in keeping with the IOC’s noble objectives,” pronounced Abdool. He said that this move breaches both the spirit and intent of the code of ethics that governs the behavior of IOC appointed International Federations and should be resisted by all of the affiliates. “Amateur boxers are our children and their protection is everybody’s business,” Abdool concluded.
Meanwhile, local affiliates of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), formerly the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA), have already commenced the process and are putting the modalities in place to accommodate the new initiative. Apart from the name change, local administrators have recently hosted a two day seminar to brief the coaches and other subordinates of the impending reforms. Consequently, those officials have been informed of changes to the scoring system; from the computer to the 10 point must system among other reforms. The ‘Referee Stop Contest’ decision will also be disbanded to be replaced by the knockout decision instead among other changes.
While these reforms are being enacted, officials of the GBBC and other world bodies are preparing to take their grouses to the world court for redress. An interesting battle looms.