The Amateurs finally smell the coffee the professionals have been brewing

In a sport which has more than its fair share of acronyms, amateur boxing has come up with a new one – WSB (World Series of Boxing). This is a series of competitions whereby the best amateur boxers in the world can compete as semi-professionals and at the same time maintain their eligibility for the Olympics.

AIBA (Association Internationale d’Boxe Amateur) is the governing body of amateur boxing worldwide but are also known as the IBA (International Boxing Association) as the English language seems to be dominant nowadays. However language semantics aside, AIBA/IBA recognised that a potential source of revenue was slipping directly from their fingers into the hands of the myriad organisations which proliferate boxing on a professional basis.

The best amateur boxers in the world were being enticed into the paid ranks with no return on the investment made by the governing bodies of amateur boxing. It doesn’t take an Oxford economist to work out that this didn’t make sense, and this ground breaking WSB set up is the brainchild of Dr Ching Kuo Wu, the duly elected in 2006, President of AIBA in conjunction with IMG, the world renowned sports marketing agency.

WSB will be an annual, franchised based professional boxing league with cities, venues and commercial third 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. The launch of franchises and team members is scheduled for London on the 28th June. 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. The WSB will be the only professional series in which boxers will retain their Olympic eligibility and national federations will receive a return on their investment in boxers."

AIBA's vision for the World Series of Boxing is to preserve the best of the new style of professional boxing while capitalizing on AIBA's strong boxing traditions to reunite the broader boxing world and its grassroots whilst providing a bridge between Olympic boxing and professional boxing.  Presumably also making some money at the same time!

Time will tell if this venture is to be a success, it has the best of ingredients but that doesn't necessarily mean a great meal, if the putting of the ingredients together is in the hands of a commis chef instead of a master chef. Will the style of computer scoring punching relevant at the higher levels of amateur boxing appeal to the mass audiences of television? Is it a way for Asian federations to dip their toes into the waters of professionalism which seems to be dominated by America, Britain and to a lesser extent Western Europe?