The International Olympic Committee would need to recognise a new federation in time to include the sport at the next Games; Rob McCracken says it's "vitally important" to save Olympic boxing and Eddie Hearn and Carl Frampton acknowledge how the pro sport would suffer a 'massive blow' too
Saturday 24 August 2024 21:06, UK
The last bell could have rung already for Olympic boxing. The sport is not included in the programme for the next Games in 2028.
Boxing's scandal-plagued international federation has been stripped of recognition and expelled from the Olympic movement, with an International Olympic Committee (IOC) taskforce handling the boxing tournament at Tokyo in 2021 and Paris this year.
But the IOC won't do that again. Boxing would need the IOC to appoint a new international federation and decide to admit the sport to LA 2028. Time is running out for that though, with preparations for the Los Angeles Games increasingly far advanced.
It is "vitally important" that boxing remains an Olympic sport.
GB performance director Rob McCracken, who has produced generations of British boxing stars over four Olympic cycles at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, told Sky Sports: "I think it's vitally important it stays an Olympic sport.
"I think boxers that go to gyms, local clubs, boxing volunteers that put in all their time and effort and work with kids up and down the down the country all through the UK, all through the rest of the world, the Olympics is really the pinnacle of an amateur boxer's career and it's what they aspire to do.
"Lots of nations have become very strong in boxing. Socially it's a hugely important sport in communities and areas. It gives kids a chance. You don't need much to take boxing up.
"It doesn't cost you a lot and anyone can do it. It's a sport that's gripped me since I was 16 years old and I've stayed gripped by it ever since. It's just open to everybody and everybody can access boxing gyms."
He remains "hopeful" that a solution can be found. It is urgent that one is.
The loss of its Olympic status would be devastating for the amateur sport. But it would severely corrode the professional game.
"Without a doubt. On a number of levels. Number one is the profile," promoter Eddie Hearn told Sky Sports.
"If there's no Olympics and there's nothing to aspire to I think that will filter through to bringing those kids through the sport. To me the profile of the sport being in the Olympics is so important. I think it would be a massive blow to boxing to see boxing out of the Olympics.
"Fingers crossed the IOC have got the appetite for the fight.
"It's so important that boxing stays in the Olympics," he added. "So important for these young fighters coming through from grassroots, it's the pinnacle.
"Just blown away with the importance of it. The camaraderie, the energy, the atmosphere, the pace of the shows and the glory.
"I just think it's amazing to see so many people fighting for honour rather than just money.
"The reality is this is the glory of the sport and it's very refreshing."
Professional boxing is increasingly aware of the imminent threat.
"We're still not guaranteed to be at the next Olympics," warned Carl Frampton, the former two-weight world champion who was covering Paris 2024 for Eurosport.
"Imagine that, imagine boxing not being in LA. Look at the great American champions [from the Olympics], Ali and Ray Leonard. I know Roy Jones got beat in the final but it was a controversial one to say the least. The knock-on effect would be huge, even for professional boxing. What happens to funding for amateurs?
"[The boxers coming through] won't be as good, absolutely not."
Frampton is backing nascent federation, World Boxing, to gain recognition from the IOC and take over the Olympic sport.
"Absolutely, they're the ones to do it. The IOC need to get involved as well and help out," he told Sky Sports.
"There's no one to blame here apart from the IBA and the AIBA before them."
AIBA, which rebranded as IBA, had been warned multiple times that boxing's place in the Olympics was at risk in the years after the notorious tournament at Rio 2016 as the IOC demanded reforms in officiating, governance and financial transparency.
World Boxing was only founded in the spring of 2023, with the express intention of saving Olympic boxing.
Its president, Boris van der Vorst, acknowledged that boxing is on the precipice of a disaster.
Speaking after the close of the Paris 2024 tournament at Roland Garros, van der Vorst told Sky Sports: "Absolutely and everything here, the high quality competition, the amazing venue, amazing crowd as well but also the number of participating national federations and countries and the diversity of the boxers here shows that boxing should remain at the heart of the Olympic movement.
"What you saw are the energy, the emotions, that is really the highlight of a boxer's career. We have a task, a duty as boxing leaders to do whatever it takes to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement.
"We are here to keep that dream alive for every boxer in every gym in the world."
He believes the IOC is still willing to include boxing in LA 2028, if the sport itself can rally around a new governing body.
"The IOC is convinced seeing this amazing venue here, this amazing crowd, that boxing should remain as an Olympic sport," van der Vorst said.
"But they've organised it two times in a row, the Tokyo cycle and now again in the Paris Games. We have to realise that they will not do it a third time in a row. So it's up to us.
"They are looking for an international federation who can take can care of the sport. So here we are, World Boxing, we have established ourselves as a reliable partner. We have delivered already high-quality competitions, we have set the foundation with national federations who were brave enough to join world boxing.
"It's up to us know to show the world, to restore the trust of boxers, fans, partners, the IOC, to show that we really care about the Olympic movement."
World Boxing needs enough national federations, from a wide enough geographical spread, in enough time for the IOC grant it recognition for the next Olympics.
"During the Paris Games there were a lot of positive commitments from national federations and I'm happy to say we have at least 50 national federations who are eligible for the Congress on November 3," van der Vorst said.
"Of course we have a road map where we have to fulfil some requirements for governance, finance, anti-doping and several other milestones that have to be achieved but I am confident.
"I am absolutely convinced that we will complete one of the most remarkable comeback stories in the Olympic movement, that our hand will be raised at the end of this year."
