AIBA opens Bid for APB Events

Lausanne, Switzerland, January 14, 2014 – The International Boxing Association (AIBA) is proud to reveal the official competition calendar of the groundbreaking AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) Competition, which will kick-off in June 2014.

At the end of January, the APB Boxers’ Selection and Ranking Committee will rank the final list of APB Boxers based on their past performances and potential. Then, the APB Program will officially start in June following two phases:

• Pre-Ranking Competition (June-July): Based on the first rankings established by the APB Boxers’ Selection and Ranking Committee, Boxers will compete at least twice (over six round of three minutes) and thus re-establish the World Rankings of each of the ten weight categories;

• Matches for Champions (August-December): Based on the rankings established by the Pre-Ranking Competition, Boxers will compete at least twice (over eight rounds of three minutes) with the best match for the very first APB World Champion Titles (12 rounds).

A total of 28 targeted AIBA National Member Federations have been contacted to host those historical first APB Ranking Events. They are proposed to organize those events over a total of four days with four bouts in each day by having one full weight category tournament.

“As President of AIBA and on behalf of the entire AIBA Family, I am extremely excited to announce the official commencement of our new revolutionary competition program”, stated Dr Ching-Kuo Wu. “It represents another step forward in the development of the noble art and I am proud that we have opened those historical first events to a bid within our National Federations. APB will reunite the pro boxing world with its grassroots, through a highly competitive, clean, structured and ethical competition, aligned with the principles of the Olympic Movement. I cannot wait to see the first APB Boxers taking to the ring and fight for the World Champion Titles”.