Michael Conlan happy to see amateur boxing in better hands, P3
- Shidonna Raven
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
By Tom Ivers
This Article has been curated by UDB
September 2, 2025
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It looked as though amateur boxing was facing being disbanded from the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, but the IOC granted World Boxing provisional recognition back in February as the international federation governing boxing at the world level, cementing boxing’s place at the next games. The World Championships this week will be World Boxing’s first major tournament and it will take place in Liverpool, England, from September 4-14.Conlan is thrilled to see the sport move out of the corrupt hands of AIBA and into the clasp of World Boxing where he hopes judgement will be fair.
“My take is it's fantastic because, you know, like every sport, corruption runs rampant in boxing, more so in boxing than most sports, obviously amateur and professional,” Conlan told BoxingScene. “It's part of the reason I say you can't really love this game, because there are too many things that can throw you off, throw you out of love of it, you know what I mean? When you get to see some of the decisions and some of the things that happen, like you thought you would think after what happened with me in Rio [Olympics 2016], the corruption would be kind of probably kept down for a bit of a while.
“But I watched the last Olympics and it was just as bad. And I went, ‘This is terrible, these guys need out. And then obviously with the IOC saying that if AIBA are involved boxing's out the Olympics. Like that's the only reason you want to stay amateur is to kind of get that Olympic dream of being a champion and even being at the Olympic Games. I know loads of fighters who have went to Olympic Games and they'll have fucking OLY in their names on their social medias because they're an Olympian even if they don't medal, because it is such an achievement. Getting to the Olympics sometimes is harder than actually winning a medal at the Olympics. The Olympics is the heart and soul of amateur boxing. And with the corruption going on and the threat that it's getting kicked out because of AIBA, it was terrible. So, the fact that these guys are getting ushered out and the new guys are getting brought in for boxing, I think it's very good. And hopefully, please God, for the first load of years anyway, it stays uncorrupt, but you know, corruption will leak in at some stage.”
Amateur boxing is almost a conveyor belt that churns out talent for professional boxing, and although Conlan is yet to win a world championship in the pros – but he will hope a win this Friday pushes him closer to doing so – many other top amateurs have made the switch and become some of the sport’s biggest stars, something Conlan believes must continue.
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