AIBA boxers turning semi-pro for Olympics

INCHEON, South Korea – While the boxing association continues with its program leading to the 2016 Olympic Games, its elite boxers will be competing in a semi-pro league that would eventually prepare them for a professional boxing career and the 2016 Olympic games as well.

A semi-pro league has been introduced by the new leadership of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) to give amateur boxers under its umbrella an opportunity to earn money in the sport while staying as amateurs.

The AIBA first introduced the World Series of Boxing where teams draw players from the world pool of boxers from various divisions in  a draft similar to that of the PBA.

The players play for the teams which pay them monthly salaries for a six-month contract on top of incentives for winning every match.

Mark Anthony Barriga and cousin Charly Suarez were the first to join the draft. They were taken to play in circuit by an Italian team before the 2013 Southeast Asian Games. Barriga won four games and lost one.

The tournaments are not individual but team competitions. Each team has five players which play opposite five players of the other team. The format calls for a best of three affair, with the team with the most number of wins going to the next round of competition.

“The good thing about the competition is that you don’t have to win all your individual bouts. It’s important that your team wins at least three games to keep you in the tournament,” said Barriga.

The rules also did away with the headgear as in professional boxing.

The AIBA has introduced another tournament, the Amateur-Professional Boxing (APB), which is similar to that of the WSB. Asian Games veterans Wilfredo Lopez, Mario Fernandez and Suarez are also being tapped for the  program, and if they get drafted, they will be joining the ranks of semi-pros who will receive salaries from their boxing clubs.

A boxer receives compensation of 2,000 Euros (a month for six months under the contract signed by the boxer and his team. On top of the salary a boxer also gets 1,000 Euros for every win.

The new AIBA scheme will not only provide additional income for the Filipino boxers, it also gives them exposure in tougher pro fights in their preparation for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.