Ghana Amateur Boxing Authority opposes new move by AIBA

The World Boxing Council (WBC) widely regarded as the premier professional boxing sanctioning body in the world has opposed moves by the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) to organise professional boxing under a new name WSB which threatens the participation of poorer countries, including Ghana in Olympic boxing.

According to AIBA/WSB, only boxers registered in their tournament would be eligible to compete at the Olympic Games, meaning boxers affiliated to any other organisation would be excluded.

Under the proposed programme, AIBA/WBS has excluded third world countries from its proposed tournament sites, while it has now withdrawn amateur boxing from its new name.

This development has not gone down well with president of the Ghana Amateur Boxing Authority, Ray Quarcoo who vehemently opposes the move by AIBA.

In an interview with JOY Sports, the GABA president said “the other bodies are exploiting the boxers. How many of our boxers have climbed up to the top? Boxers coming from Africa do not really earn anything from [their respective] governments.

The WBC is worried that boxers coming from the amateur division will not be given the chance to fight for WBC/WBA because if we are taking our boxers after the Commonwealth games and they opt to play for WSB, none of them will be going.”