World Boxing given IOC recognition as sport takes step towards 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee has taken a key step toward retaining boxing on the program for the Los Angeles Games in 2028 as it recognised a new governing body for the sport.

The IOC board granted provisional recognition Wednesday to World Boxing, a group which was founded in 2023 as a breakaway from the long-established but troubled International Boxing Association, and has picked up many former IBA members.

The IOC said that World Boxing showed that 62 per cent of boxers from last year's Paris Olympics were affiliated with its members. The IOC added that World Boxing "has demonstrated strong willingness and effort in enhancing good governance and implementation, to be compliant with the appropriate standards".

• Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn winner to challenge Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez
• Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺
• Anthony Joshua eager for Tyson Fury fight - 'We could do something special'

Former boxing great Gennady Golovkin, who heads the commission tasked with establishing World Boxing as a credible body to run Olympic bouts, said it was an important moment but much work remained.

"Receiving provisional Olympic recognition from the IOC is an important achievement and demonstrates that our sport is on the right path. This decision brings us one step closer to our main goal - preserving boxing at the Olympic Games," Golovkin said in a statement.

The IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 following long-running disputes over governance, its finances and the integrity of bouts and judging, and took the rare step of banishing it from the Olympic movement entirely in 2023, shortly after the World Boxing breakaway.

The IOC organised the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris Games last year but said it needed a new partner in time for 2028.

Since it was suspended, the IBA and its Russian president Umar Kremlev have continued to feud with the IOC, particularly over the rules on eligibility for women's boxing at the Paris Olympics, with a focus on gold medallists Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting.

The IBA said this month it planned to file criminal complaints against the IOC in the United States, France and Switzerland.

GB Boxing 'welcomes' IOC decision to grant provisional Olympic recognition to World Boxing

GB Boxing Performance Director Rob McCracken and Olympic medallists Lauren Price and Cindy Ngamba responded to the news on Thursday, saying the decision was a positive step forward for Olympic boxing.

McCracken said: "This is very good news for all of the boxers in our squad and a really significant step forward for Olympic boxing as a whole. We have always tried to have a positive outlook on things at GB Boxing because we can see that World Boxing is doing a good job, so it is great that the IOC has acknowledged this by provisionally recognising it as the International Federation for the sport.

"This will be a really big boost for the boxers in our squad and everyone connected with our World Class Programme (WCP) and indicates that things are travelling in the right direction in terms of boxing remaining in the Olympic Games."

Price said: "It was always my dream to compete at the Olympic Games and nothing I achieve in my professional career will ever top the achievement of winning gold at Tokyo 2020.

"Competing and winning gold at the Olympics Games provided me with a platform that is enabling me to enjoy a successful career as a professional boxer. For up-and-coming boxers to be denied this opportunity would be damaging for their careers and the sport as a whole."

Ngamba said: "Having the opportunity to compete for the Refugee Team at Paris 2024 has transformed my career and my life and shows how important it is that boxers continue to have the opportunity to take part in the Olympic Games.

"The thought of being able to compete at the Olympics was one of the things that kept me going in difficult times and inspired me to pursue a career in boxing. It would be hugely damaging to the careers of male and female boxers across the world if this opportunity did not exist for them, so the decision by the IOC to provisionally recognise World Boxing is really good news for the sport as it keeps the Olympic dream alive."