Ukraine joins growing list of countries who have decided to withdraw from the IBA Women’s Boxing World Championship

Several countries have decided to withdraw from the IBA Women’s Boxing World Championship in Delhi due to the growing Russian influence in IBA.

Ukraine has now joined a continually growing list of countries who have decided to withdraw from the upcoming IBA Women’s Boxing World Championship set to be held in New Delhi next month. Ukraine, who are still ravaged by war following the Russian invasion of the country nearly a year ago, said that it has decided to boycott because boxers from Russia and its ally Belarus will be allowed to participate in the competition. Ukraine has also decided to withdraw from the men’s Boxing World Championship as well.

The vice-president of the Boxing Federation of Ukraine (FBU), Oleg Ilchenko told Ukrainian website Suspilne Sport that the country’s boxers will not compete ‘on the same stage as athletes from the aggressor countries.’

The one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is approaching this Friday and the IBA, which was already in troubled waters because of the growing Russian influence in the organisation as well as the sport, has now had its credibility greatly undermined given that it is  headed by Russian official Umar Kremlev, who is seen as an ally of Vladimir Putin.

“Our answer is clear: our athletes and representatives of the Boxing Federation of Ukraine do not perform where the representatives of the aggressor countries will perform – these are Russia and Belarus,” Ilchenko was quoted as saying.

In 2021, Kremlev stirred controversy by going against the International Olympic Committee and lifting the ban on Russian and Belarusian boxers to participate in international tournaments under their own country’s flag and anthem.

Ukraine are not the first country to withdraw from the Women’s Boxing World Championship due to the participation of Russian and Belarusian boxers. In fact, Britain, Switzerland, Poland, The Netherlands, Ireland, Czech Republic, Sweden and Canada had also decided to boycott the tournament led by the United States in order to show their growing discontent with the IBA.

The IBA, meanwhile, has called their boycott ‘political games’ and said that the tournament, set to be held from March 15 to 26 at the KD Jadhav Stadium in New Delhi, will go ahead with or without them.

Meanwhile, not all is gloomy when it comes to the Boxing World Championship. The 2016 Rio Olympics gold medallist Estelle Mossely and 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Nesthy Petecio are among the top women pugilists to have already registered for the upcoming tournament.

"It is an honour for India and the BFI to host the prestigious IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships. We are hosting it for the third time but this time the tournament will touch an unprecedented high mark. We have already received registration from 74 countries so far, bigger than any previous editions. The BFI is all set to conduct an event of such magnitude and we are certain that the world will witness the best ever congregation of boxers," Ajay Singh, President of Boxing Federation of India (BFI) said.

A total of 350 plus boxers from 74 countries have registered so far for the biennial event, which will be hosted by the Boxing Federations of India (BFI) for the third time. Three Tokyo Olympics silver medallists are also participating in the upcoming Championships.