▪️The international Olympic body has reduced the number of weight categories to seven – men and women – in this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland
March 24, 2026
One of Kenya’s Kenya’s top boxers George “Foreman” Onyango has accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of discrimination by reducing to seven the number of weight classes in this year’s Commonwralth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 23 to August 2.
“This is discrimination of the highest order, it’s unacceptable,” Onyango told boxersworld.co.ke in a telephone interview from his rural home in Western Kenya.
Onyango was reacting to IOC’s decision to reduce weight classes to seven in this year’s Commonwealth Games, accusing IOC of killing boxing in their competitions.
“Instead of adding more weights they’re reducing them, thus marginalising boxers whose weight categories are not included,” said Onyango who won heavyweight gold at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckand, New Zealand.
“The IOC has made boxing meaningless and less competitive in their events, and also endangering the health of some boxers reducing weight to fit into the discriminatory seven weight divisions.
“These days winning medals in the Olympics is so easy compared to the tough and rigorous IBA World Championships, in Paris Olympics IOC cut the number of weights to 13.”
According to the IOC, the reduction to seven weight classes is meant to align with LA 2028 Olympics and ensure gender parity. It will be the Commonwralth Games men and women are competing in equal number of weight classes.
The Commonwealth Games boxing tournament will be held under the auspices of the newly-formed World Boxing (WB) which has already received provisional recognition from the IOC.
Expressing his views further on this reduction, Onyango said it means 11 boxers have been forcefully removed from Glasgow Games going by the usual IBA standard weight categories of 13 for men and 12 for women.
“I really feel sad for boxers thrown out of the Games by the IOC, even if it’s cutting costs why should they reduce the weights,” wondered Onyango.
“Reducing weights to accommodate this stupidity is unwise and unhealthy,” said a boxing official in the UK quoted on Facebook.
Many current boxers and coaches I have spoken to have expressed their displeasure at the IOC’s decision, saying it’s very demoralising for those boxers who weight classes have not been included.
“IOC can as well remove boxing in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games if they will continue leaving out some boxers in their competitions, we’re very disappointed,” said a top boxer in Africa.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games are being scaled back to cut down on expenditure and public funding. Total number of disciplines have been reduced to only 10 from 19 at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
What is further annoying the boxers is that IOC is still offering no incentives other than their normal medals, making their events meaningless in this age of commercialisation in sports.
“Winning medals in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games is just for prestige, we’ve seen our former teammates hanging medals in their houses but were not even honoured by their governments,” said a furious female boxer.
They all praised IBA for offering prize money in their tournaments, urging the international body to àspeed up the process of staging the 2026 IBA Africa Elite Men’s and Women’s Championships.
“We want to fight for money now not mere medals which can’t put food on our tables,” said one of the boxers all of whom requested for anonymity.
