The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has taken a crucial step toward ensuring boxing remains on the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games by granting provisional recognition to a new governing body, World Boxing.
World Boxing, established in 2023 as a breakaway organization from the troubled International Boxing Association (IBA), has gained widespread support from national federations, including many former IBA members. The IOC announced on Wednesday that 62% of boxers who competed at last year’s Paris Olympics were affiliated with World Boxing, demonstrating its growing influence in the sport.
The committee praised World Boxing for its commitment to governance reforms and compliance with Olympic standards. “World Boxing has demonstrated strong willingness and effort in enhancing good governance and implementation, to be compliant with the appropriate standards,” the IOC stated.
Kazakh boxing legend Gennady Golovkin, who leads the commission overseeing World Boxing’s establishment, emphasized that while the recognition is a milestone, more work lies ahead. “Receiving provisional Olympic recognition from the IOC is an important achievement and demonstrates that our sport is on the right path. This decision brings us one step closer to our main goal – preserving boxing at the Olympic Games,” Golovkin said in a statement.
The IOC first suspended the IBA in 2019 due to concerns over governance, financial mismanagement, and judging integrity. In 2023, the committee took the unprecedented step of completely removing the IBA from the Olympic movement. Since then, the IOC has directly overseen boxing competitions at both the Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024 Olympics but has been seeking a new governing body to take over in time for the Los Angeles Games.
Meanwhile, the IBA and its Russian president, Umar Kremlev, have remained in conflict with the IOC, particularly over eligibility rules in women’s boxing at the Paris Olympics, affecting gold medal contenders Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. Earlier this month, the IBA announced plans to file criminal complaints against the IOC in the United States, France, and Switzerland, escalating tensions between the organizations.
With the IOC moving closer to solidifying boxing’s place in the 2028 Olympics under new leadership, the sport appears to be on the verge of a fresh start, though challenges still remain.
