The Executive Board of World Boxing has endorsed nine new applications to join the organisation from the National Federations for boxing in Belarus, Cyprus, Mozambique, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Tanzania, Tonga and Zambia.
The endorsements means that World Boxing now has 168 member National Federations made-up of 123 ‘Full Members’, one ‘Associate Member’ and 44 ‘Endorsed Members’.
To secure the endorsement of the Executive Board, all nine National Federations have completed a rigorous application process and are deemed to be in good standing and, through their statutes and operating processes, able to demonstrate a transparent and open election process for the appointment of office bearing roles, showcase the existence and operation of WADA-recognsied anti-doping polices and processes, and provide evidence of a structured, dispute resolution and appeals process that is either fully independent or subject to external input.
While the Executive Board has endorsed the applications from the Russian and Belarusian National Federations, World Boxing will seek guidance from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the conditions for participation in its competitions. It is expected these will follow the AIN procedure – ‘Athlètes Individuels Neutres’ (Individual Neutral Athletes) – deployed by the IOC for Russian and Belarusian athletes that competed at the recent 2026 Winter Olympic Hames in Milan Cortina.
Adopting the AIN procedure would mean that boxers from Russia and Belarus will participate as individual athletes without a flag or national anthem. World Boxing will also conduct a series of checks to ensure that Russian and Belarusian boxers who want to participate in its competitions do not have a history of supporting the war in Ukraine and are not members of clubs linked to the army or police force.
The decision to endorse the applications from Cyprus, Mozambique, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Tonga and Zambia means that all seven countries will be able to compete in the boxing competition at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games this summer, which will be held under World Boxing’s rules.
The nine new National Federation members are:
- Belarussian Boxing Federation
- Cyprus Amateur Boxing Federation
- Mozambique Boxing Federation
- NIUE Boxing Federation
- Russian Boxing Federation
- PNG Boxing Union Inc.
- Tonga Federation of Boxing
- Boxing Federation of Tanzania
- Zambia Boxing Federation
Under World Boxing Statutes HERE the nine new National Federations have ‘Endorsed Member’ status which means they are able to compete in World Boxing competitions (subject to the AIN procedure for Russia and Belarus) but cannot vote at Congress 2026 as they do not have ‘Full Member’ status.
‘Full Member’ status can only be conferred by Congress, which is the ultimate authority of World Boxing, and will be voted on at Congress 2026. ‘Endorsed Members’ that are successful in having their membership applications ratified at this Congress and become ‘Full Members’ will be able to vote at the following year’s Congress in 2027 and all those thereafter.
Lists of the 124 National Federations that have ‘Full Member’ or ‘Associate Member’ status and the 44 National Federations that are ‘Endorsed Member’ can viewed be in the membership section of the World Boxing website HERE.
World Boxing was launched in April 2023. It held its first formal meeting with the IOC in May 2024 and on 25 February 2025, it was granted provisional recognition by the IOC as the International Federation (IF) within the Olympic Movement governing the sport of boxing at world level.
