THE IBA world championships return this year in Dubai – with a never-before-seen amateur boxing money at stake.
Held over 12 days, the world’s best talent from the amateur code compete for medals and money while representing their nations.
Over 100 nations and 400 boxers are involved, including four from Scotland and two from England.
SunSport has all the details below…
What is the prize money?
A huge $8.32m (£6.3m) prize pool will be split across the tournament, awarded to the top five in each weight class and split between their teams.
The boxers take home 50 per cent of the money, with 25 per cent going to the coaches and the remaining 25 per cent going to their national federations.
Prize money is split as follows…
- 1st place: $300,000 (£227,000)
- 2nd place: $150,000 (£113,650)
- Joint 3rd place: $75,000 (£56,800)
- 5th place: $10,000 (£7,500)
When are the IBA World Championships?
The bi-yearly tournament kicks off on Thursday, December 4 with the preliminary, quarters and semi-final stages running until December 11.
They are staged over two sessions, firstly the afternoon section from 5pm-9pm local time (1pm-5pm GMT) and the evening from 9.30pm-midnight (5.30pm-8pm GMT)
The final commences on Saturday, December 13 from 5.30pm-9pm (1.30pm-5pm GMT).
Who is fighting in the tournament and where can I watch?
All bouts will be streamed free and live on the official IBA YouTube channel.
Recognisable names from the amateur code include:
- Julio La Cruz (CUB) – Two-time Olympic champion
- Hasanboy Dusmatov (UZB) – Two-time Olympic champion
- Abdumalik Khalokov (UZB) – Olympic champion
- Loren Alfonso Dominguez (AZE) – Paris 2024 Olympic finalist
- Nurbek Oralbay (KAZ) – Paris 2024 Olympic finalist
- Aibek Oralbay (KAZ) – Two-time Asian champion
- Mohamad Mehdi Sahak (Eng)
- Vincent Mandair (Eng)
- Leo Church (Scot)
- Alan Perrie (Scot)
- Robert McNulty (Scot)
- Nicholas Devlin (Scot)
Who is involved?
Umar Kremlev is the International Boxing Association president – formerly running boxing at the Olympics.
Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao has also come on board as Vice President of IBA while Chris Roberts – from Scotland – is the CEO.
Roberts told SunSport ahead of the World Championships: “The world championships is the pinnacle of an amateur boxers’ career.
“It’s an elitist event for the very best. It’s very prestigious and we try to get to new heights every time we do it.”
