Interested in thoughts on this letter from AIBA
Re: Interested in thoughts on this letter from AIBA
My initial thought is disgust and outrage.
1) Looks like AIBA is trying to exert a stricter control over boxing in general, and the amateurs in particular by holding access to the Olympics as a bargaining chip.
2) APB (AIBA Pro Boxing) may be successful in the 'stans and countries with a similar international profile, but no way is it going to compete with the WBC (as a sanctioning body), or Golden Boy/Top Rank/Don King (is he even still relevant?) etc as promoters. In particular, I don't think AIBA would allow APB signed boxer isn't able to even box a non APB boxer. This means they will never get to the level of the elite pro boxers where the big money is.
3) It's clear that AIBA is trying to take amateur boxing in the general direction of the pro style: WSB (World Series of Boxing) was a semi-pro league (and spectacularly unsuccessful in the US, by the way), we've all heard rumblings about a 10 point must scoring system in the amateurs, no headgear for open boxers and similar pro style rules. They are just rumors at this point, but this letter confirms that's the direction AIBA wants to go.
4) Some of the terms in this letter are embarrassingly laughable. Change your name to no longer have 'amateur' in it? You must use our marketing company? Your NF (national federation) must provide administrative support for APB. Will USA Boxing comply? Probably, but it's still laughable.
I can only hope that this will last all of a few months, when enough people realize AIBA is full of crap, and tell them to shove it. Any way you slice it, though, this is bad for boxing in general. I also question how legal some of this is in terms of US law (Ted Stevens act, restraint of trade/anti-trust), but I don't think anyone has the time, money, or energy to actually challenge this stuff in court.
My final thought is:
In the grand scheme, is this going to make a difference in the day to day? Probably a little with rules changes, but local boxing will be local boxing. I'm going to be as active as the rules allow me, given that I do both amateur and pro (currently just apprenticing to be a pro judge, but hopefully I'll be ready to judge for real in the not too distant future).
Obviously, being in the US, I have a US view of things, largely colored by the fact that USAB as an organization is all messed up. I'm curious what our friends in the UK and elsewhere think?
1) Looks like AIBA is trying to exert a stricter control over boxing in general, and the amateurs in particular by holding access to the Olympics as a bargaining chip.
2) APB (AIBA Pro Boxing) may be successful in the 'stans and countries with a similar international profile, but no way is it going to compete with the WBC (as a sanctioning body), or Golden Boy/Top Rank/Don King (is he even still relevant?) etc as promoters. In particular, I don't think AIBA would allow APB signed boxer isn't able to even box a non APB boxer. This means they will never get to the level of the elite pro boxers where the big money is.
3) It's clear that AIBA is trying to take amateur boxing in the general direction of the pro style: WSB (World Series of Boxing) was a semi-pro league (and spectacularly unsuccessful in the US, by the way), we've all heard rumblings about a 10 point must scoring system in the amateurs, no headgear for open boxers and similar pro style rules. They are just rumors at this point, but this letter confirms that's the direction AIBA wants to go.
4) Some of the terms in this letter are embarrassingly laughable. Change your name to no longer have 'amateur' in it? You must use our marketing company? Your NF (national federation) must provide administrative support for APB. Will USA Boxing comply? Probably, but it's still laughable.
I can only hope that this will last all of a few months, when enough people realize AIBA is full of crap, and tell them to shove it. Any way you slice it, though, this is bad for boxing in general. I also question how legal some of this is in terms of US law (Ted Stevens act, restraint of trade/anti-trust), but I don't think anyone has the time, money, or energy to actually challenge this stuff in court.
My final thought is:
In the grand scheme, is this going to make a difference in the day to day? Probably a little with rules changes, but local boxing will be local boxing. I'm going to be as active as the rules allow me, given that I do both amateur and pro (currently just apprenticing to be a pro judge, but hopefully I'll be ready to judge for real in the not too distant future).
Obviously, being in the US, I have a US view of things, largely colored by the fact that USAB as an organization is all messed up. I'm curious what our friends in the UK and elsewhere think?
Re: Interested in thoughts on this letter from AIBA
This sounds like the it will not be good for the sport. So only fighters that are with them can fight in Olympics ?
Re: Interested in thoughts on this letter from AIBA
That's my read. From an amateur perspective (now called 'AIBA Olympic Boxers') the change is minimal as far as eligibility. For pros, they must be either in the WSB or APB.scallum wrote:
This sounds like the it will not be good for the sport. So only fighters that are with them can fight in Olympics ?
You'd think after a generally controversial olympics where even if you take the US Men's performance out of it, lots of people weren't happy, that AIBA would lay low before opening this can of worms. Still, not sure boxing is popular enough of a sport to generate a significant outcry.
Re: Interested in thoughts on this letter from AIBA
This is bs I originally thought would give kids more shots at trying for Olympic Teams but it sounds like less fighters will have shots. Im not sure if Usa or other countries boxing will even go along with this
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sucracristo
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Re: Interested in thoughts on this letter from AIBA
baseball has the world baseball classic and is out of the olympics. world cup is MUCH bigger than olympic soccer. ice hockey has worlds that are just as big as olympics and they could make break without missing olympics. fiba in basketball is about to set up their own international tournament that would dwarf olympic tourney and maybe take the sport out entirely. american football has superbowl and no olympics. olympic boxing is on the back cable channels now and the push button scoring makes it impossible to watch, so maybe it's time for amateur boxing to break from the usoc and aiba and set up a good world tournament that people could watch on national tv and would actually put the sport and top amateurs back in the public eye? without the usoc, the olympics would be out their primary source of revenue by far, american tv. usoc should represent usaboxing in the ioc and not aiba. usaboxing should represent its members, not the usoc or aiba. there should be a clear line between amateur and pro, even at the elite amateur level