Welsh Boxing & IBA

WELSH BOXING TERMINATES ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INTERNATIONAL BOXING ASSOCIATION

On Tuesday 3 June, the board of Welsh Boxing voted to terminate Welsh Boxing’s membership of the International Boxing Association (IBA) after the IBA announced, on May 5th, that it is to become a global Bare Knuckle Boxing governing body, an initiative that is contrary to Welsh Boxing Policy and against the values of our Boxing Community. The board’s unanimous decision followed the IBA’s expulsion from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 22 June 2023, and the launch of World Boxing in April 2023 with a mission to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement. Welsh Boxing was one of the earliest federations to join World Boxing, a move intended to preserve Olympic participation for the young Welsh boxers of the future. World Boxing, which now has a membership of 107 countries, has been granted provisional recognition by the IOC as the International Federation within the Olympic Movement governing the sport of boxing at world level.  Welsh Boxing had continued to hold dual membership of the IBA and World Boxing but we will now focus all our energies on World Boxing as the only organisation that is consistent with our values and can sustain boxing’s participation at the Olympics. The Welsh Boxing Performance Department has indicated that it no longer needs or will participate in any IBA events and that the World Boxing Calendar is now sufficiently developed to ensure meaningful competition for our selected boxers. We look forward to seeing Welsh boxers participate at the Los Angeles Olympics, the first at which membership of World Boxing will be the only legitimate route to Olympic participation.

Welsh Boxing Board of Directors