Exclusive news: Men boxing with 10 divisions, 48 kg dropped

[ogii3]

It's now almost official. All international tournaments starting from next year will be with 10 weight divisions. 48 kg will be dropped. The reason is introducing women boxing on Olympic Level. SOmething more, the number of men fighters in London will be 246 (286 in previous two Olympic Games). There will be introduced 5 Olympic women divisions from 53 to 75 kg (there will be 8 female fighters per weight division for a total of 40 boxers).
It was decided on the last AIBA EC meeting in Italy. IOC gives unofficial green light to introduce women boxing.
Now AIBA works on presenting official rating system, which will be used to put seeded boxers on the draw, just like tennis.
World championships 2011 will be in Busan, Korea......

[boxmel]

IOC gives unofficial green light to introduce women boxing.

Ogii - where did this come from????

[JMac]

IOC gives unofficial green light to introduce women boxing.

Ogii - where did this come from????

It came from the AIBA EC meeting in Milan, though those details are not on the website, he is right. That is what is being proposed to the IOC. No offense to the women but I do not like seeing men being eliminated to include the women. I wish there was another way to include them without eliminating weight classes and numbers of male boxers. That has already been done in the past when they went from 12 to 11 weight classes and lowered the number of boxers by making them quailify through continental tournaments that had quotas.

[boxmel]

It came from the AIBA EC meeting in Milan

,
Jim - I'm questioning where Ogii got the "unofficial green light from the IOC" comment. Is this hopeful wishing on AIBA's part?

No offense to the women but I do not like seeing men being eliminated to include the women. I wish there was another way to include them without eliminating weight classes and numbers of male boxers.

Me, too - and I'm one of the early proponents of the women's program.

lowered the number of boxers by making them quailify through continental tournaments that had quotas.

Sounds like the quotas will be lower for 2012 - good guess?

[Dennis]

Dropping the 48 kg class won't hurt the U.S. too much. We don't have a lot of boxers in that class. I just hope this trend of eliminating weight classes doesn't continue. If it does, I hope they combine some of the lower weight classes. There is already a large weight spread in the upper weight classes. Since boxing lost one weight class when women's wrestling was added for 2004, I hope men's wrestling loses one weight class now that women's boxing is being added.

If we had to drop to say 8 classes, my proposal would be to have 51kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 91kg and +91kg weight classes.

[boxmel]

Since boxing lost one weight class when women's wrestling was added for 2004,

That's not true, Dennis - men's wrestling lost, not boxing. AIBA went to 11 weight classes because the IOC ordered all sports to lower their numbers.

[Dennis]

Since boxing lost one weight class when women's wrestling was added for 2004,

That's not true, Dennis - men's wrestling lost, not boxing. AIBA went to 11 weight classes because the IOC ordered all sports to lower their numbers.

The IOC ordered it because they added women's wrestling so Men's Boxing did lose one weight class because of Women's Wrestling being added to the 2004 Olympic Games.

[JMac]

boxmel wrote:

I'm questioning where Ogii got the "unofficial green light from the IOC" comment. Is this hopeful wishing on AIBA's part?

I think so.

Sounds like the quotas will be lower for 2012 - good guess?

They will be to add the women.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis wrote:

The IOC ordered it because they added women's wrestling so Men's Boxing did lose one weight class because of Women's Wrestling being added to the 2004 Olympic Games.

Since boxing lost one weight class when women's wrestling was added for 2004,

That's not true, Dennis - men's wrestling lost, not boxing. AIBA went to 11 weight classes because the IOC ordered all sports to lower their numbers.

The IOC ordered it because they added women's wrestling so Men's Boxing did lose one weight class because of Women's Wrestling being added to the 2004 Olympic Games.

I think your both right. The IOC capped the Olympics at 10,500 athletes so they came up with the continental quailifiers. No more countries entering full teams if they wanted to which was actually good for boxing because there were some boxers that did not deserve to be competing based on skills. Kind of like the Jamacian bobsled team. The qualifiers eliminates the novice boxers. But I think when womens wrestling came in, they needed slots for them and they did eliminate some male wrestling weight classes and it was the same time boxing lost a weight class with those slots given to wrestling.

[boxmel]

I think your both right.

I'm checking with Sandy Pino on this one - she'll know.

[DCAmateurBoxing]

Dropping the 48 kg class won't hurt the U.S. too much. We don't have a lot of boxers in that class. I just hope this trend of eliminating weight classes doesn't continue. If it does, I hope they combine some of the lower weight classes. There is already a large weight spread in the upper weight classes. Since boxing lost one weight class when women's wrestling was added for 2004, I hope men's wrestling loses one weight class now that women's boxing is being added.

If we had to drop to say 8 classes, my proposal would be to have 51kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 91kg and +91kg weight classes.

I'd like to see something between the 75kg and 91kg. A lot of boxers get stuck somewhere in between. Always seemed weird how the incremental increases in weight classes just stop at 75kg.

[Dennis]

Of course I'm right, I'm an attorney. We're never wrong. D

[415BOXING]

This decision is a bad one,the weight gap especially at the higher weight classes is dangerous,these boxers are sometimes in between weights so alot of times they struggle to make the lower weight,which is dangerous,or they move up in weight,which is dangerous cause then they compete agInst naturally bigger and stronger guys

[Roberts J]

Dropping the 48 kg class won't hurt the U.S. too much. We don't have a lot of boxers in that class. I just hope this trend of eliminating weight classes doesn't continue. If it does, I hope they combine some of the lower weight classes. There is already a large weight spread in the upper weight classes. Since boxing lost one weight class when women's wrestling was added for 2004, I hope men's wrestling loses one weight class now that women's boxing is being added.

If we had to drop to say 8 classes, my proposal would be to have 51kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, 69kg, 75kg, 91kg and +91kg weight classes.

I'd like to see something between the 75kg and 91kg. A lot of boxers get stuck somewhere in between. Always seemed weird how the incremental increases in weight classes just stop at 75kg.

Could combine the 17 and 201 , or combine 201 and 201 + , I prefer the latter.

Or maybe 168 to 190 and 190 and 201 + combinded. Just a idea.

[Dennis]

This decision is a bad one,the weight gap especially at the higher weight classes is dangerous,these boxers are sometimes in between weights so alot of times they struggle to make the lower weight,which is dangerous,or they move up in weight,which is dangerous cause then they compete agInst naturally bigger and stronger guys

Oh no, a 112 boxer moves up to 119 or 119 moves up to 125. We are talking about a 7% increase in weight. Lets see a 165 boxer moving up to 178 is an 8% increase, but a 178 to 201 is a 13% increase. A 201 boxer mving up to 201+ could be huge if those two were combined. A boxer who only weighs 185 going up against a guy who weighs 285 is a huge difference - an increase of 56%. Even a 200 pounder going up against a 250 pounder is a 25% increase.

[Dennis]

Roberts - where have you been? Any fights since the 2008 NGG? Will you be boxing in the 2009 Chicago Golden Gloves?

[ogii3]

To Mel question,
As you know Wu is member of IOC. There is one other member of IOC, who became a part of AIBA reforming commitee (as chairman) - Gerhard Heiberg from Norway. Scandinavian is very high official in IOC, member of EC of IOC and also chairman of marketing commission of IOC. Hope you get the clue :)

My source told me that the change is 99.9% sure along with introducion of women boxing.
Let me take you back some years ago. Jacques Rogge was elected as IOC president during IOC session in 2001. During the very same meeting of all IOC members it was voted to introduce women wrestling and to cut men wrestling weight divisions.

On October 2009 in Copenhagen will be held IOC electing session. During the meeting there will be elected new president and new EC. Now according to IOC rules Rogge was elected on 2001 for 8 years with an option to serve no more then 4 years if he will be elected in Copenhagen. This means he probably will continue to serve as IOC president and the current ideas to introduce women boxing and to lower men divisions is on. it will become official on Copenhagen session, where will be voted by IOC members.

[Roberts J]

Roberts - where have you been? Any fights since the 2008 NGG? Will you be boxing in the 2009 Chicago Golden Gloves?

Hey Dennis. I have just been working and training a lot. I have had about 6 fights since nationals winning them all. Yup I'll be in the Gloves this year. Getting in the the final weeks of preparation. April and May are busy fighting months with the nationals, state and regionals. How have you been, how's Jordan ?

[boxmel]

Thanks for the info, Ogii - do you remember when Chowdhry proposed the inclusion of women's boxing in the Olympics in 2005? Around that same time Rogge also told Sandy Martinez Pino, when she was AIBA Women's Committee chair, that he would see women's boxing in the Olympics. I'm disappointed that Wu seems to be taking credit for all these "new" acts when there is background he is unwilling to acknowledge.

[Dennis]

Roberts - where have you been? Any fights since the 2008 NGG? Will you be boxing in the 2009 Chicago Golden Gloves?

Hey Dennis. I have just been working and training a lot. I have had about 6 fights since nationals winning them all. Yup I'll be in the Gloves this year. Getting in the the final weeks of preparation. April and May are busy fighting months with the nationals, state and regionals. How have you been, how's Jordan ?

I've been good. Jordan is training hard and getting ready for the very busy months of March through June. Maybe we will see you in Salt Lake City. I'll watch for your name in the results section of the Chicago GG webpage. Good luck.

[ogii3]

Thanks for the info, Ogii - do you remember when Chowdhry proposed the inclusion of women's boxing in the Olympics in 2005? Around that same time Rogge also told Sandy Martinez Pino, when she was AIBA Women's Committee chair, that he would see women's boxing in the Olympics. I'm disappointed that Wu seems to be taking credit for all these "new" acts when there is background he is unwilling to acknowledge.

Jaques Rogge is never said directly "No", he always "would be", "it's possible" or "why not". The first time that women boxing was proposed (not officialy) to be included into Olympics program was around 2000-2001. I remember that your web page during this time was the one that promotes so much women boxing as well Canadian boxing association page of our friend Matt :)

[boxmel]

Jaques Rogge is never said directly "No", he always "would be", "it's possible" or "why not".

He told Sandy "yes" - just never said when. 8)

I remember that your web page during this time was the one that promotes so much women boxing as well Canadian boxing association page of our friend Matt

Thanks for the compliment. Matt did a good job, too.

[rmz]

I'm all for equality in sports and I support women's boxing at the Olympics. If we have women's wrestling, why not women's boxing? I just think it's a shame we have to cut the men's participation and weight classes to accommodate the women. Maybe they'll come up with some kind of strategy to keep all the men.

[Kolya]

If they're going to put in 5 women's weight classes, I think they should go with lower weights, not up to middleweight. There's many more women in the 106-141 range than there are above that, the competition would be better.

[Dennis]

If they are only going to have 5 weight classes, they should have them spread out so there is an opportunity for more women. Going from about 116 to 165 pounds seems reasonable. The women under 116 could still compete in that class. Think about the women who weight 175 or more. They might not be able to get down to 165 and so they have no opportunity to compete.

[boxmel]

I asked Sandy about the dropping a weight class and including women's wrestling - she was Chair of the AIBA Women's Committee at the time. Here is her response:

"no its not true (that men's weight class was dropped to allow for women in wrestling. the ioc has a maximum number of athletes in any olympic games. i believe the total participation is 10,000 which includes officials, athletes, coaches, team leaders, etc. they made class d sports, i.e. boxing, to reduce their numbers by 10%. had nothing to do with women's wrestling."

"Class D" means that sport is at the bottom of the barrel and could be considered for being dropped from the Olympic Games.