New world body announces first six official members

LONDON : World Boxing, a new body seeking recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), announced its first six official members on Wednesday with the United States among federations from three continents.

The others approved as full members were New Zealand Boxing, Boxing Australia, England Boxing and the Dutch Boxing Federation.

GB Boxing, which delivers the United Kingdom's publicly-funded World Class Programme but is not a national governing body as England, Wales and Scotland have their own, was listed as an associate member.

The IOC executive board in June recommended withdrawing recognition of the Russian-led IBA over its failure to meet a set of reforms.

It had already suspended the IBA in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues.

World Boxing launched in April with a mission to keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic movement amid fears it might be excluded from future Games, with the sport not on the initial programme for Los Angeles 2028.

Applicant members needed to demonstrate a transparent and open election process for positions of office and be recognised formally by their national Olympic committee or ministry for sport.

Full members will have voting rights at the inaugural congress in November.

World Boxing secretary general Simon Toulson said a number of other applications were being processed.