Macau (MNA) – The President of the International Boxing Federation (IBF) Daryl J. Peoples, told Macau News Agency (MNA) the organisation is trying to bring an international title match to Macau in the Summer of 2019.
“We’re discussing possibly holding the IBF convention here and if that happens we’ll definitely have a world title fight, supported by a bunch of local talents. Even if the convention doesn’t come here, we’ve got a lot of support from Macau so we’ll try to bring a title match[…] We’re trying to build boxing here in Macau,” Mr. Peoples told MNA.
The IBF President made the comments on the sidelines of the weigh-in ceremony held this Saturday at the Macau Fisherman Wharf, which precedes the opening match of the 2018 IBF Silk Road Champions Tournament to take place tomorrow evening at the Wynn Palace.
IBF is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) and allowed to organise world championship boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO).
The IBF Silk Road Champions Tournament – which launched its first edition last year in Macau – kickstarts the IBF B&R 2018 season, with fighters from 75 counties and regions counties included in the Chinese government One Belt and One Road initiative such as Azerbaijan, India, Uzbekistan, Russia, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Philippines.
The event is co-hosted by IBF and Chinese media group People.cn and promoted by the Rejoy Group.
“We had a pretty good turnout [last year] so we had many countries coming [to this year’s edition] or returning for the second time. It’s going well,” Mr. Peoples added.
The event is included in the 2018 Wushu Masters Challenge, organised by the Macau Sports Bureau (ID) from August 2 to 5, with the IBF President saying support from local authorities and business sponsors made having the event in Macau “an easy choice”.
“Macau is going to be our B&R headquarters, we’re also contemplating bouts in Thailand and Moscow,” Mr. Peoples told MNA.
This year’s tournament will include a bout between Chinese Macau fighter Micael Ferreras Olfindo Hong Kong fighter Siu Tin Raymund Chau for the IBF B&R Junior Lightweight Contender Fight.
There will also be fights between IBF Asian Champion Hu Die with Ukrainian fighter Olena Medvedenko over IBF SRC Female Featherweight Semifinal, and between IBF China Champion Gao Shuxin and Thai fighter Phanom Phoyaem over the IBF SRC Middleweight Semifinal.
According to the Senior VP of Rejoy Group, Andrew Lu, there are currently two tournaments organised simultaneously, the IBF China Professional Boxing Tournament – “for Chinese nationals, giving a platform for young boxers to show their talents” – with the winners able to compete at the upper level tournament, the IBF Silk Road tournament.
“Whoever wins this one will be ranked top 15 in the whole world and have a chance to move up and even challenge the world champion so we’ve open a career development path for young Chinese and Silk and Road countries fighters,” Mr. Lu added.
