IOC and World Boxing meet ahead of potential Los Angeles 2028 cooperation

World Boxing held its first formal meeting with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne on Monday, as it bids to be the international federation for boxing at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

After the suspension of the International Boxing Association (IBA, formerly AIBA) in 2019 over finance and governance issues, the IOC oversaw the Olympic boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020 and is currently doing the same for Paris 2024.

Following IBA's expulsion from the Olympic Movement last year, a decision upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in April, the IOC stated that it would need "a partner international federation for boxing by early 2025" if the sport is to be on the Los Angeles Games programme.

World Boxing, whose president is former IBA presidential candidate Boris van der Vorst, was launched in April 2023 with the objective of replacing IBA as the international federation for Olympic boxing.

According to World Boxing, the IOC insisted during the meeting that - in order for boxing to be part of the Los Angeles 2028 programme - the new international federation had to be supported by a global body of national federations, and show evidence of proper governance and leadership.

After speaking with IOC sports director Kit McConnell at Olympic House, Dutchman van der Vorst said, "Once again, we  thank the IOC for their commitment and perseverance with boxing in the Olympic Games having run two Olympic editions themselves. Now it is time for World Boxing  and National Federations to learn from their best practices and applied ethical  principles.

"It is clearly imperative that those boxing nations interested to compete in the Olympic  Games in the future need to show urgently their intent and commitment to the Olympic Games by joining World Boxing and retaining boxing at the Olympic Games. Otherwise, the loss of boxing’s Olympic status would be our worst nightmare."

USA Boxing is the largest national federation to sign up to the fledgling organisation, but the vast majority remain affiliated with IBA who claim World Boxing is "unfit on all levels to support national federations around the world".