World Boxing

World Boxing was formed in April 2023 as a breakaway boxing federation by 18 nations who wished to withdraw from the International Boxing Association (IBA, formerly AIBA) and form a new international federation to govern non-professional boxing.

In September 2024, the federation already had 125 member nations, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was proposing that World Boxing become the official International Federation for boxing to organize the 2028 Olympic boxing tournament, replacing the IBA. World Boxing was recognized by the Alliance of Independent Recognized Members of Sport (AIMS) in February 2025, and, later that month, the IOC Executive Board gave 2025 World Boxing Provisional Recognition as the International Federation within the Olympic Movement governing the sport of boxing at the world level. In March 2025, it received further support when it was recognized by the Association of the IOC-Recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF). At the 144th IOC Session, on 20 March 2025, World Boxing was recognized by the IOC as the governing federation for Olympic boxing.

Men’s boxing first made part of the Olympic programme at St. Louis 1904, and the first women events were contested at London 2012 (then under the wing of the IBA). Boxing is also part of the Youth Summer Olympics, with the first boys’ events contested at its inaugural edition of Singapore 2010, and the first girls’ boxing events staged in its second edition, at Nanjing 2014.

After receiving IOC recognition in 2025, World Boxing held the first edition of the World Boxing Championships that same year, featuring men’s and women’s events, in Liverpool, Great Britain. The Los Angeles 2028 Games will receive the first boxing Olympic events under the auspices of World Boxing.

As of January 2026, World Boxing has 155 member National Federations (123 Full Members, one Associate Member, and 31 Endorsed Members). The federation’s office is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its current president is Kazakhstan’s former Olympic boxing silver medalist Gennady Golovkin.