"Keeping its place at the Olympic Games is absolutely critical to the future of our sport at every level, from the grassroots to the highest echelons of professional boxing, and this decision by the IOC takes us one step closer to our objective of seeing boxing restored to the Olympic programme,” Van der Vorst said.
After the stripping of the IBA’s status, the creation of a new world governing body became the order of the day for boxing in efforts to include the sport at the next Games - which led to World Boxing coming into fruition.
The International Olympic Committee has granted provisional recognition to World Boxing as the sport’s international governing body, signifying a major step towards the inclusion of the sport at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The IOC has taken charge of boxing for the past two Olympics after the Russian-led International Boxing Association (IBA) was suspended as boxing’s global governors in 2019.
The IOC has now provisionally recognised World Boxing as the sport’s new global body, stating that it has ‘made progress regarding the identified areas of consideration’ and met several key criteria including gaining sufficient members across five continents.
