From their official website: A new ground breaking tournament designed to reshape the world of international boxing at both the Olympic style and the professional level - the World Series of Boxing (WSB) - was unveiled today to the international sporting community, media and all of AIBA's 195 member federations during an official AIBA dinner in Beijing. In announcing the WSB, AIBA also introduced its new business/marketing partner in connection with WSB - IMG, the world renowned international sports marketing agency. WSB will be an annual, franchised based professional boxing league with cities/venues/commercial 3rd parties applying to "own" a franchise and enter its team of boxers into the League. The WSB will feature both team and individual based competitions. AIBA will, with support from its national federations, help facilitate the participation of the world's best boxers in the League, and IMG will source and negotiate the franchises, and sell the commercial rights (media, sponsorship, licensing) around the world in consultation with AIBA. The exact format of the WSB in respect to the number of teams/franchises, the number of boxers per team, the weight categories and all the finer competition rules are currently under development and the final decisions will be released in due course. In addition, it is AIBA's intention that boxers that compete in the WSB will be allowed to compete also in future Olympic Games. AIBA plans to launch the first edition of WSB in 2010. AIBA President Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu praised the new initiative, pointing to its global reach. "The World Series of Boxing will revolutionise the sport of boxing like never before providing a universal form of entertainment which will capture the imagination of boxing fans around the world," he said. "With IMG's expertise and commitment to developing a highly valued boxing property which will survive for generations, AIBA aims to provide a boxing legacy which will change the sport forever." Ian Todd, the President of IMG International, said - "IMG is extremely proud to have been selected by AIBA as its business and marketing partner in connection with the World Series of Boxing. With our 40 years of experience in working with some of the world's leading sports federations we are confident that with our skill sets of producing/selling media rights, procuring sponsorship and negotiating franchise agreements we can build the World Series of Boxing into one of the world's premium annual sporting events with AIBA." What do you all think? Of course we have to see how it will work out but it sounds promising! I think it's great for the sport of boxing:happy
In September 2010 the World Series of Boxing (WSB) will signal a new beginning in the global boxing world - a fresh new concept from AIBA with a city based franchised league of professional boxing, established on a global basis. Three continental conferences Four franchises in each conference 12 franchisees Each match between teams will consist of five bouts (one per weight class), of five rounds, of three minutes each 75 matches in each season The WSB will consist of five weight categories: Bantamweight Lightweight Middleweight Light Heavyweight Heavyweight The WSB will be annually held and allow aspiring boxers to compete professionally without having to sacrifice their dreams of competing on behalf of their countries at the Olympic Games. AIBA will provide a bridge between Olympic boxing and Professional boxing, with the WSB being the only professional series in which boxers will retain their Olympic eligibility. The boxers will compete within teams across three global regions: Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Each bout will be made up of five rounds of three minutes per bout, with not vests or headgear. In addition, boxers will be provided with reliable income and a guaranteed schedule of bouts. This will allow the boxers to grow in technique and style.
This is copied from an old post of mine that I posted last august, located here: http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82556 2 major boxing tournaments per year. One in the Americas and one in Europe/Asia. Not simultaneously, one from January to June and one from July to December. 8 boxers per division qualify for each tournament. At the beginning of the tournament you have to choose your division and stick to it. Purses are dealt out like they are in tennis. The further you get, the more money and points you make. At the same time there are many minor boxing tournaments of different importance around the world. These tournaments give out less points than the majors. They operate on the same principle as the major ones: the further you get in the tournament, the more money (and rankings points) you make. The boxers that qualify for the tournaments are the ones with the most points. Every time a boxer moves up a division, he loses 10% of his points. The points stay with the fighter for 3 years, after that they are dropped off. I got this idea mostly from tennis. In terms of non-combat sports, the most similar sport to boxing in the world is tennis. Tennis has a system that works to perfection. Boxing and tennis have major differences, especially in terms of how often the atheletes can compete and also weight classes, but these differences can be tended to with modifications of the system.
so basically they wont turn Pro boxing in to another soccer\basketball\hokey sport. It will turn charismatic individual based sport in to national team sports. From one side it would be great for competition and evolving(you can't duck an opponent and you'r promoters want buy you a win) but it will kill that basic auditory.
If it goes through, I think it won't take away any elite pro fighters or elite prospects who'd go pro anyways, but give fans more exposure to amateurs we otherwise wouldn't see. Many of the best amateur fighters never go pro in the traditional sense or delay it due to not leaving communist countries, not finding a promoter, or wanting to save eligibility for the Olympics. That they would allow the fighters who compete in this to still compete in the Olympics is a sign that that's the kind of amateur fighter they're going for. In essence, it's just giving more exposure to the sport and helping those amateur guys build a name for themselves, which increases their chance of getting a promoter behind them in case they want to go pro in the normal sense of the word.
