Regional Disparities of Amateur Boxing

 

 

Not so long ago, the 2013 AIBA World Boxing Championships finished in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is time to mention
regional disparities of the International Boxing Association (AIBA). Athletic community must do something about this inequality.

 

Since 1986, it has been led by Presidents of the Asian origin: Anwar Chowdhry (1986 – 2006, Pakistan)

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Not so long ago, the 2013 AIBA World Boxing Championships finished in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is time to mention regional disparities of the International Boxing Association (AIBA). Athletic community must do something about this inequality.

Since 1986, it has been led by Presidents of the Asian origin: Anwar Chowdhry (1986 – 2006, Pakistan) and Wu Ching-kuo (2006 –, Taiwan). Besides, it has had influential Vice Presidents of the Asian origin, like Beket Makhmutov (Kazakhstan), Ho Kim (Korea) and Gafur Rakhimov (Uzbekistan). Incidentally, Mr. Rakhimov has been characterized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as «one of the leaders of Uzbek organized crime».

Prior to the London Olympic Games, the AIBA’s reputation was marred by a corruption scandal involving officials of its subsidiary WSB and businessmen from Azerbaijan.

A yellow chicken among black ones.

During this period, U.S. boxers have been several times mistreated by AIBA. For example, Roy Jones Jr. was robbed of his Olympic gold medal in Seoul, 1988. Rocky Juarez was controversially defeated at the Olympic finals in Sydney, 2000. Another regional injustice is the fact that since 1996 only boxers from the former Soviet Union have been awarded with the Val Barker Trophy, presented to the best boxer of the Olympic Games. But, outstanding athletes, like Odlanier Solis of Cuba and Felix Diaz of Dominican Republic, were not awarded with this prestigious prize.

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