Breakaway body World Boxing elects Dutch official as its first president

Breakaway body World Boxing has elected Dutch official Boris van der Vorst to be its first president amid a wider dispute over the sport’s place in the Olympic Games.

World Boxing said on Saturday that van der Vorst won 65 per cent of the vote to beat Elise Seignolle of the United States at a congress in Germany attended by 26 member governing bodies. Van der Vorst said he would promote “integrity, honesty and trust” in boxing.

World Boxing was founded in April in a split from the International Boxing Association (IBA) in April by countries including the US and Britain.

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That came after a years-long dispute between the IBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which voiced concerns over the IBA’s management, its finances and the integrity of refereeing and judging. The IOC suspended the IBA in 2019 and voted in June to no longer recognize it as boxing’s authority in the Olympic movement.

Boxing is still on the program for next year’s Paris Olympics, but it will be run by the IOC with no role for the IBA. Boxing is set to be at the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 too.

Van der Vorst was previously a leading voice of opposition within the IBA to its president, Russian Umar Kremlev. He ran against Kremlev for the presidency last year but was removed from the ballot in a decision which the Court of Arbitration for Sport said was wrong. Despite that ruling, the IBA chose not to hold a new vote.