Idman.biz
Boxing has been officially retained in the program of the 2028 Summer Olympics. However, Los Angeles will be the venue where the Olympic management system for this sport will be completely restructured.
The main change is that for the first time, both the qualifying stage and the main tournament of the quadrennial will be organized by the newly created "World Boxing" federation, not the International Boxing Association (IBA). The entire selection mechanism is now being formed around this organization.
According to İdman.Biz, after years of conflict between the IBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the IOC has completely ceased cooperation with the former organization. In the spring of 2025, it recognized "World Boxing" as a temporarily accredited international federation, and later returned boxing to the Olympic-2028 program.
This means a number of important consequences: Olympic qualification is no longer managed by the IBA. A ticket to the Games depends directly on the membership of national federations in "World Boxing". The selection system will be based on a new model that is closer to other Olympic sports. In fact, the 2028 Summer Olympics are considered the "first Olympics after the IBA".
It is already known that the qualification process will consist of three world selection tournaments and five continental championships. This is one of the biggest selection changes in boxing in recent decades. Previously, the system was based on IBA tournaments and a complex licensing mechanism. Now, the main focus is on global selection competitions, regional representation, and more transparent management of the process by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and "World Boxing".
The complete distribution of licenses for competitions has not yet been published. However, it is already known that both male and female athletes will compete for licenses on completely equal terms. The new system will be more centralized. The main condition is that only athletes whose federation is a member of "World Boxing" will be able to qualify for the Olympics before the selection stage begins.
It should be noted that Azerbaijan also became a member of this organization in May last year.
At the same time, gender equality will be implemented for the first time in the history of boxing at Los Angeles 2028. At the Games, men and women will compete in seven weight categories. 124 quotas have been allocated for each side, and the total number of participants will be 248 boxers. For comparison, Paris 2024 had fewer weight categories for women.
A number of changes are expected for leading boxing countries in the upcoming qualifying stage. First of all, the importance of continental tournaments will increase further. Regional championships will play a decisive role for Asian, European and American countries. At the same time, the value of each start will increase, especially considering the three world selection competitions.
In the coming months, "World Boxing" will announce the schedule of selection tournaments, the distribution of licenses, the ranking and "seeding" system, the rules of participation for athletes and the requirements for national federations. The "seeding" system is the method of placing athletes in the tournament bracket according to their ranking. That is, strong and highly ranked athletes are specially divided into separate groups during the draw so that they do not meet each other in the early stages and are placed in the tournament network in a balanced manner.
However, it can already be concluded that Olympic boxing is entering a new era with new leadership, a new selection system and a changing map of world sports. Los Angeles 2028 will be the testing ground for whether this system will create long-term stability.
