Sri Lanka has just hosted the ASBC Asian U22 & Youth Boxing Championships at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium but the country’s boxing management is thinking about something bigger next year.
It was confirmed on Sunday, the last competition day of the ASBC Asian U22 & Youth Boxing Championships, that Sri Lanka plans to host one of the upcoming world boxing championships in 2026.
The age group and the gender of this event has not been confirmed yet but Sri Lanka is ready to arrange another milestone in their boxing history taking a World Championships to Colombo, the International Boxing Association (IBA) has declared. It bears noting that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdrew its recognition of IBA in June 2023 in favour of the Western powers-propped World Boxing.
IBA CEO Chris Roberts, interim president of the Asian Boxing Confederation Aziz Kozhambetov and the Sri Lanka Boxing president Dr Anuruddha Shanaka Bandara met with the Sri Lankan government, the local sports authorities to discuss the modalities of organising a world championship.
The ASBC Asian U22 & Youth Boxing Championships was a success in Colombo, where host country Sri Lanka proved its potential, hospitality and provided high quality of services for all of the teams, delegations and officials.
IBA-India, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, French Polynesia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, IBA-Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam were the 23 participating nations in this championship.
Regarding IBA-India, some context. The governing body for the sport recognised by the Union Sports Ministry is the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), headed by Spice Jet CEO Ajay Singh. Clearly, IBA-India is a rebel faction that would in all likelihood have been formed after BFI (read Singh) aligned itself with World Boxing in May 2024.
