AIBA rebrands to IBA amidst Olympic boxing corruption probe
After scathing comments from the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, AIBA has taken drastic steps to fix their image and has even gone so far as to rebrand themselves as the International Boxing Association, or IBA. This comes on the heels of Bach calling boxing and weightlifting the IOC’s “problem children.”
The news comes in as the IOC has excluded boxing from the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California. The sport is still on the programme for 2024 in Paris for now.
Umar Kremlev, who was elected president of AIBA just over a year ago, said in a press conference on Monday that fixing AIBA’s long standing issues is his number one priority and that he is optimistic on reinstatement before the 2028 Games arrive.
“We need to deal with this and draw up a plan of action which will help lead to our reinstatement at the IOC session in 2023 (when the 2028 program is finalized). We need to continue to improve our administration. We implemented new forms of administration less than 72 hours after the IOC told us about (removal from the 2028 Games).”
IBA and A Sketchy Past
IBA has a tough task ahead of the newly named association. Richard McLaren outed AIBA in September 2021 with a dossier that pointed out several matches that were likely fixed and pointed to bribery and corrupt judging as to the systemic issue. Since then IBA has been scrambling to please the IOC at risk of being removed from the Olympic Games.
Since then, IBA has worked with judges and implemented AI technology as part of a program to help weed out potential weak links in a judges integrity. The organization has recruited the help of Roy Jones Jr., a victim of corrupt judging pointed out in McLaren’s report, to chime in on the system.
Stay posted to My MMA News as the IBA news unfolds as the organization works to stay part of the Olympics. Thanks for reading!
