Kazakh steps up to challenge for world boxing presidency

Former Olympic silver medalist Serik Konakbayev, from Kazakhstan, plans to challenge the Uzbek incumbent Gafur Rakhimov for the presidency of the International Boxing Federation (AIBA), AFP learned on Friday.

The Kazakhstan boxing federation announced Konakbayev’s candidacy in a letter sent to the federations that make up AIBA which has been seen by AFP.

Konakbayev won silver in the light welterweight class in Moscow in 1980, representing the former Soviet Union.

“As president of the Asian Boxing Confederation, Serik Konakbayev has established himself as an experienced leader,” said the letter.

Konakbayev has been a member of AIBA’s executive committee since 2010 and a vice-president since 2014. He was also a member of the Kazakh parliament for 12 years.

The election will take place at the AIBA congress in Moscow on November 2-3.

The sport faces the real prospect of being knocked out of Tokyo 2020 by the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC has been losing patience with boxing since a judging scandal at the 2016 Rio Games when all 36 officials and referees were suspended while allegations of bout-fixing were investigated.

The IOC has suspended financial aid to AIBA because of “concerns over a number of key issues, such as governance, ethics and financial management”.

An internal power struggle saw Taiwanese president CK Wu ousted and earlier this year Rakhimov was installed as interim president.