A million for any weight – Kommersant

The International Boxing Association (IBA), which is in a sharp confrontation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a number of national federations, has responded to an attempt to minimize its role in boxing management with an extraordinary move. IBA President Umar Kremlev announced that the already solid prize money due to the winners of the World Championship, the main tournament of the structure, will be increased to $1 million by 2027. Fulfilling the promise will mean that amateur boxing will become one of the most financially profitable sports and will even compete in this sense with professional boxing.

President of the International Boxing Association Umar Kremlev announced the upcoming changes in the prize fund of the world championships at the draw ceremony opened on Monday in Tashkent next men’s world championship. And so, having reached a huge amount by recent standards – $ 5.2 million, it, judging by the words of Mr. Kremlev, should grow significantly. Umar Kremlev recalled that at the moment the winner of the tournament in each of the 13 weight categories is entitled to $200,000, the silver and bronze medalists receive $100,000 and $50,000, respectively.

In a year, Mr. Kremlev said, prize payments to gold medalists will be doubled, to $400,000, and in 2027 to $1 million (silver and bronze will “cost” $500,000 and $250,000, respectively).

Umar Kremlev, specifying that 10% of the prize money will be transferred to the coaches of athletes, said that the task of the IBA is “to create the best conditions for practicing our wonderful sport.” He noted that the federation wants to provide “parents who bring a child to boxing” with the confidence that thanks to this “they will become wealthy people.” Umar Kremlev also stressed that the IBA is “one of the few” sports structures that is ready to pay such large prizes.

It’s impossible to argue with this. In fact, the fulfillment by Mr. Kremlin of his promise in four years will put amateur boxing on a par with the most commercially successful genres. For example, the prize fund of the second Grand Slam tennis tournament of the season, Roland Garros, starting at the end of May, is about €40 million. half of it.

Thanks to such a breakthrough, amateur boxing will even be comparable in terms of financial return to professional boxing.

It has tens of millions of dollars in fees just for fights involving a narrow circle of the most sought-after celebrities, which are of tremendous importance, and superstars often do not reach the $1 million bar. For example, at the end of January, a fight took place in London, in which the Russian Artur Beterbiev defended world titles of the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) in light heavyweight (up to 79.4 kg), knocking out Briton Anthony Yarde. Beterbiev’s guaranteed fee amounted to $550,000 and hardly increased significantly after calculating financial indicators, despite the fact that the fight was a very significant event not only for Great Britain and Russia.

The reason for the appearance of Umar Kremlev’s loud promise is quite understandable. We are talking about an “asymmetric” response to recent events.

In a state of confrontation with the International Olympic Committee, the IBA, deprived of the head structure of recognition and removed from the organization of Olympic boxing tournaments, has been since the end of the last decade. And the election of Umar Kremlev as president of the federation, who decided largely thanks to the sponsorship contract with Gazprom, including its financial problems, did not soften the position of the IOC. The confrontation moved into a particularly acute phase after the start of events in Ukraine. Last spring, the IOC recommended that international sports federations remove Russians from participation in competitions, which the vast majority of them did.

However, back in the fall of 2022, the IBA lifted this ban and allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their own flag. This led to a boycott of the Tashkent World Championship by 17 countries, including those that play leading roles in boxing, such as the US and the UK, as well as the establishment of an alternative organization, World Boxing. She is trying to get recognition from the IOC and intends to take the place of the IBA in this way, but financial opportunities remain the weak point of the “schismatics”. The entire budget of World Boxing does not reach the amount that Umar Kremlev promises his champions in 2027.

Alexey Dospekhov