World Boxing is a not-for-profit, international sports federation which aims to put the interests of boxers first and ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement.
It was established by a group of like-minded individuals from a number of National Federations across the world in response to the persistent issues surrounding Olympic-style boxing’s international governing body, whose failure to address the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) longstanding concerns over sporting integrity, governance, transparency and financial management placed boxing’s future as an Olympic sport in doubt.
World Boxing offers an alternative to this and was founded on the principles of integrity, honesty and excellence.
The organisation is underpinned by rigorous governance practices and aims to create a sustainable and inclusive global sporting structure where boxers from around the world can compete and excel knowing that the integrity of the sport is guaranteed and competition is fair.
It ensures the views of athletes are represented at the highest level and includes a male and female boxer with voting rights on its Executive Board.
Publicly launched in April 2023, by the start of January 2025, World Boxing had approved membership applications from 60 National Federations covering all five Continents that compete in the sport.
On 7 May 2024, World Boxing held its first formal meeting with the IOC which signalled the start of formal collaboration aimed at establishing a pathway for boxing to remain in the Olympic Games. In September 2024, World Boxing established an Olympic Commission, chaired by the President of the National Olympic Committee of Kazakhstan, Gennadiy Golovkin, to support and assist the process of developing a pathway to ensuring that boxing is restored to the Games.
World Boxing provides principled leadership to its members and is committed to delivering five key pledges that will safeguard the future of both the sport and its athletes worldwide.
World Boxing pledges to:
- Keep boxing at the heart of the Olympic movement
- Ensure the interests of boxers are put first
- Deliver sporting integrity and fair competitions
- Create a competition structure designed in the best interests of the boxers
- Operate according to strong governance standards and transparent financial management
World Boxing’s full strategic plan can be viewed below:
