LAUSANNE, March 31, 2025 - World Boxing is set to open its first competition of the year today in Brazil following a landmark month in which it was provisionally recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and boxing was included on the sports programme for LA28 after many months of uncertainty.

The World Boxing Cup will take place in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, from March 31 to April 5, with more than 130 boxers from 19 countries participating, according to World Boxing, which four days ago announced it has increased its membership to 89 countries. The World Boxing Cup is a competition whereby elite male and female boxers accrue ranking points over several stages of competition during the calendar year.

Speaking to the press at the 144th IOC Session in Costa Navarino, Greece, World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst acknowledged the important tasks ahead following the crucial decisions taken by the IOC. “The real work is starting now for us,” the Dutchman said, pointing out that establishing a clear gender eligibility policy is top on the agenda for World Boxing. 

The Olympic boxing tournament in Paris last year was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the participation of Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting in the female category, where they both won gold medals.

FAIR, SAFE, TRANSPARENT “For us it's very important to have fair and safe competitions and we have installed a commission for sex, age and weight policy and I expect in the near future that they will publish our policy in this regard,” Van der Vorst said, adding that it’s also critical to ensure transparency in judging. “That means that we will copy the procedures of the Paris Boxing Unit on how to manage the officials. We will also explore avenues for modern technology, engaging AI, for example, to make the decisions more fair and transparent.”

UNIFYING THE BOXING WORLD Having gotten the green light to run the Olympic competition at Los Angeles 2028, World Boxing also hopes to engage more national federations. Van der Vorst said: “For us it's very important to unify the whole boxing world and to have all the best boxers participating in LA 2028.”

He added: “We are now in a transitional period, having only recently received professional Olympic recognition. We are working now with our current members to align the statutes for World Boxing that you cannot refer anymore to the previous international federation. For us working on good governance is key.”

When asked if there was a deadline for national federations to join World Boxing, Van der Vorst said: “The train has left the station already. And for me it's important to call all the national federations to join World Boxing as soon as possible, to enable their boxers to participate in, for example, the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar and many other multi-sport events that are related to the Olympic movement.”

To join World Boxing, national federations have to complete a "rigorous application process". Through their statutes and operating processes, they have to be able to demonstrate "a transparent and open election process, the existence and operation of WADA-recognised anti-doping polices and processes, evidence of independent, structured, dispute resolution and appeals processes, formal recognition by either their National Olympic Committee (NOC) or Ministry for Sport and a solid national and international boxing programme."

Following the expulsion of the International Boxing Association (IBA) from the Olympic Movement, the sport was originally left off the LA 2028 programme, with the IOC insisting that its return would be dependent on the recognition of a new global governing body.

The IBA was expelled in 2023 over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance. World Boxing was launched in the same year and had only 37 members at the conclusion of the Paris Olympics.

While at loggerheads with the IBA, the IOC organised the boxing competitions at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris Games in 2024. But the IOC had no plans to continue running the Olympic boxing tournament beyond the Paris Games.