Nigeria is the first African country to join the World Boxing

Oct 21, 2023 - 12:49

Nigeria is the first African country to join the newly formed World Boxing, the new international federation established to keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic Movement and support the growth and development of the sport at local, regional, national, and international levels.

National Federations for boxing in Finland, Iceland, Jamaica, Norway, and the Czech Republic including Nigeria are the latest six organizations to have their membership applications approved by World Boxing

The new international federation now has 22 members covering all five continents that compete in Olympic-style boxing.

The six new joiners will be eligible to take part in World Boxing’s inaugural Congress in Frankfurt Am Main on November 24-25, 2023 which will have at least the same number of members as the equivalent inaugural Congress held by AIBA (now known as IBA) in London in 1946.

The six new members completed a rigorous application process to join World Boxing. They are deemed to be in good standing and, through their statutes and operating processes, able to demonstrate:

A transparent and open election process for the appointment of office-bearing roles
The existence and operation of WADA-recognized anti-doping policies and processes
Evidence of a structured, dispute resolution and appeals process that is either fully independent or subject to external input
Formal recognition by either the National Olympic Committee (NOC) or the Ministry for Sport
A solid national and international boxing sports program

The applications have been approved by the Executive Board of World Boxing and will be ratified at the inaugural Congress in Frankfurt.

All of World Boxing’s members will be invited to attend the Congress and have had the opportunity to nominate candidates for the offices of President, Vice President (VP) and places on World Boxing’s Executive Board and the Chairs of the Sport and Competition Committee, the Medical and Anti-Doping Committee and the Finance and Audit Committee. All full members will have voting rights at the Congress.

World Boxing was launched in April 2023 and aims to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement. It will seek recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and plans to work constructively and collaboratively to develop a pathway that will preserve boxing’s ongoing place on the Olympic competition program at Los Angeles in 2028 and beyond.

The first cohort of World Boxing members was made up of USA Boxing, New Zealand Boxing, Boxing Australia, GB Boxing, England Boxing, and the Dutch Boxing Federation.

They were joined in August 2023 by the National Federations for Boxing in Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Honduras,