NIGERIA AMONG SIX AFRICAN COUNTRIES IN WORLD BOXING

Nigeria will not take part in IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships because they’ve now officially joined World Boxing body.

The populous West African country is one of the six African members  of World Boxing which has been given provisional recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“We’re now officially with World Boxing so we can’t take part in the World Championships in Serbia,” a board member of Nigeria Boxing Federation Olalehin Adura told boxersworld.co.ke in an interview from Lagos, Nigeria.

In addition to Nigeria, other African countries in WB are Algeria, Egypt, Gambia, Madagascar and Malawi.

“I’m appealing to other African countries to join us in World Boxing if they want to take part in the Olympic Games,” said Adura.

“We’re still working on getting more members from Africa, once we have at least 15  we’ll be in a better position to form an African boxing body affiliated to World Boxing.”

He explains why Nigeria decided to move out of IBA to join WB.

“We joined World Boxing to protect the dreams and future of our upcoming boxers, especially their chances of competing at the Olympics.

“This is a newly formed association, and we are just getting started. Right now, our priority is to focus on saving the sport of boxing itself from being excluded from the Olympics , not the immediate benefits for the athletes. The athletes’ benefits will come later once the sport is stabilized and secured.”

Adura is a former Nigerian  international boxer, and won a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He is a representative  of  Southwest region in the Nigerian boxing federation board which has six states namely Ondo, Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti.

World Boxing was formed on April 13, 2023 to ensure boxing remains in the Olympic Games after a fallout between IOC and IBA. So far 78 countries have joined World Boxing. Asia leads with 24 countries in WB, Europe 23, Americas 18, Oceania seven and Africa six.