THE Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines used to be the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines. This was mandated by the International Boxing Association or AIBA, which dropped its amateur status and virtually copied what was being done in pro boxing in a dubious effort to control the sport and obviously make money.
As a result, the ABAP, headed by Ricky Vargas as president, now finds itself in trouble with the Philippine Games and Amusements Board over its decision to allow two of its top boxers—London Olympian Mark Anthony Barriga and Charly Suarez to sign up with the AIBA Pro Boxing Tournament.
The GAB, which is under the Office of the President, is mandated by law to supervise and control professional boxing, which means that Barriga and Suarez have to follow the requirements of the GAB, which covers all professional fighters.
There is absolutely no way ABAP president Vargas can refuse to have the two fighters comply with all the requirements of the GAB and to argue against it would be ridiculous.
The ABAP, like several other national boxing associations, were bamboozled by AIBA president Dr. Wu Kuo Ching and his hit man, Ho Kim of South Korea, into agreeing to lend prestige to the tournament by the Philippines competing and sending our two boxers to compete in the AIBA pro tournament.
When Dr. Wu initially launched his effort to drop the AIBA’s amateur status and seek to undercut the pro boxing organizations by announcing that only pro boxers who compete in the AIBA tournaments will be eligible to compete in the Olympic Games beginning 2016 in Brazil, the late World Boxing Council president Don Jose Sulaiman objected vehemently and requested then International Olympic Commiottee president Jacques Rogge not to sanction the move, but the IOC acted like wimps and did nothing.
Under the ridiculous AIBA restrictions, even if Manny Pacquiao wants to represent the Philippines at the Olympic Games, he cannot, unless he signs up with AIBA and moves out of the jurisdiction of any of the major world pro boxing organizations.
The WBC, under president Mauricio Sulaiman, has been joined by the other leading world organizations such as the World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and International Boxing Organization to unmask the imminent threats, which AIBA’s actions pose to the detriment of boxing and is determined to free amateur boxing from the monopolistic actions, restriction of trade and abuse of power that AIBA actively seeks.
Sulaiman posed the question: “So what is amateur boxing today?,” pointing out that “AIBA’s attempts to control our sport have muddled and muddied that concept. AIBA has eliminated the word “amateur” from their name, so amateur boxing, as we all knew it, doesn’t exist anymore. That is precisely the point of our united struggle to unmask AIBA’s nefarious goals.”
While it enjoys the exclusive authority from the IOC to handle Olympic boxing competitions, AIBA has abused that authority and has put a plan in place to sign exclusivity contracts with fighters, which the WBC points out, are in fact commercial instruments geared to stage professional competitions, while attempting to maintain the contractually bound boxers’ eligibility to participate in the Olympic Games. Only those boxers, who participate in a commercial contract with AIBA are eligible to compete in the Olympic Games!
AIBA has also threatened National boxing authorities of many countries to either work solely with themselves, or to be expelled from International competition and even the Olympic Games! There are countless documented examples of AIBA’s reprehensive activities over the past few years.
This must be stopped and the ABAP must show the way, otherwise it will be regarded as an opponent of pro boxing in the Philippines, which has brought us so much honor through the years.