BoxRec

I was wondering what people's thoughts were on this new initiative at the amatuer level, details of which can be found at the following link:

http://www.aiba.org/default.aspx?pId=2994

It appears that a number of the franchises have already been sold, and with sports managment giant IMG in charge of the promotion, it seems to have a good chance of success when it kicks off next year.

On the positive side it will hopefully help keep promising boxers from turning pro too early, by providing them with a platform to gain international exposure and a bit of cash while retaining their olympic eligibility.

I also like the fact that there's only five weight categories, although I'd imagine this will probably expand once the competition takes off.

The tournament seems in many ways closer to pro boxing than amatuer boxing with the abolition of vests and headguards, 5 round fights and a 10 point scoring system. In my view these are all positive steps, and I'd hope that if successful some of these changes would trickle into amatuer boxing. In particular, would be great to see a return to the 10 point scoring system.

With so many of the current professional fight cards being filled with boring one-sided fights, I think this is a positive initiative that should bring some cracking "pro-style" fights between the world's best amatuers.

LethalLeprechaun wrote:I was wondering what people's thoughts were on this new initiative at the amatuer level, details of which can be found at the following link:

http://www.aiba.org/default.aspx?pId=2994

It appears that a number of the franchises have already been sold, and with sports managment giant IMG in charge of the promotion, it seems to have a good chance of success when it kicks off next year.

On the positive side it will hopefully help keep promising boxers from turning pro too early, by providing them with a platform to gain international exposure and a bit of cash while retaining their olympic eligibility.

I also like the fact that there's only five weight categories, although I'd imagine this will probably expand once the competition takes off.

The tournament seems in many ways closer to pro boxing than amatuer boxing with the abolition of vests and headguards, 5 round fights and a 10 point scoring system. In my view these are all positive steps, and I'd hope that if successful some of these changes would trickle into amatuer boxing. In particular, would be great to see a return to the 10 point scoring system.

With so many of the current professional fight cards being filled with boring one-sided fights, I think this is a positive initiative that should bring some cracking "pro-style" fights between the world's best amatuers.

Don King tried this in the pros in the 1970s and nearly brought the whole sport down. Coincidentaly, King is going to pay tribute to Michael Jackson with a 10-bell count at the Joseph Agbeko v Vic Darchinyan showdown later this month in Florida. That's a bit like Jack the Ripper paying tribute to womanhood.