Umar Kremlev is the new president of the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA), winning the election on Saturday with 57.33 per cent of the vote. Kremlev has called for unity and reforms in AIBA, the sports body that represents amateur boxing worldwide.
The election was held virtually at AIBA’s ongoing congress due to the pandemic. It was attended by 155 National Federations from five continents.
“Let me make it clear: the path to rebuilding AIBA is not easy. It will not happen overnight. We have to unite together and work with one mission, and one mission alone: rebuilding the credibility and trust that AIBA once had in the minds of sports people worldwide and that includes, of course, restoring AIBA’s Olympic status,” Kremlev said after winning the election.
Kremlev’s ambitious manifesto aims to pay off the millions of dollars in debt accumulated by AIBA under previous administrations.
“Getting rid of AIBA’s debt will be the first priority. As I promised when I announced my run for the presidency, I will clear this debt in the first six months. My administration will aim to raise $50 million within two years, all of which will be used to rebuild AIBA,” Kremlev told the AIBA Congress.
He has announced plans to provide annual funding of $2 million to AIBA’s national federations and to set up boxing academies on each continent to train athletes, coaches, referees, and judges.
Kremlev has made it his mission to develop boxing around the globe. As head of the Russian Boxing Federation since 2017, he participated actively in the organization of various international boxing tournaments, including the 2019 AIBA Men’s and Women’s World Championships.
Kremlev also launched the first Global Boxing Forum, which was first convened in early February 2018 in Sochi, Russia. It soon became a platform for an open dialogue between representatives of the world boxing community from more than 130 countries as well as heads of leading boxing organizations, athletes, Olympic champions, world champions, and promoters.
Kremlev is confident he can chart a clear path for AIBA to be reinstated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024.
“Boxing is the sport of fighters. Our fight today is against financial debt, against incompetence, against corruption, against doping, against poor training, and against poor safety. Strengthening AIBA’s governance structures, and ensuring our checks and balances work, will be the focus of my tenure as president,” announced Kremlev.
The new AIBA president has received strong support from the National Federations, who see his leadership qualities and strong track record as necessary for AIBA at this crucial junction in its history.

Marc James 

Following his last achievement, winning the World Boxing Council Mediterranean Super Featherweight Championship in March 2019, he made history for Malta. That achievement opened the doors to the European Boxing Union who issued a purse bid (expression of interest) for European boxing promoters to bid to win. 

RCCBoxe Promotions of Italy was the winner of the bidder putting forward their fighter Mario Alfano, who has accumulated a record of 17 fights, 15 wins 1 loss 1 draw. The European Title fight will take place in the Palasantoro Sports Venue in Rome, Italy on Friday the 4th December. The fight will be shown LIVE on Rai Sport with the expected time to be 11pm. 

Having spoken to Haithem, he recently appointed Prize Boxing Promotions' Demis Tonna as Second while the tactics mind behind the team is Davide Giordano, who will also be acting as cutsman. 

This is an important step for Haithem. This is boxing at the highest level or as know, top flight boxing. No other boxer in Malta has yet achieved as much as Haithem, but to win a European Boxing Union title you must catch the attention of the European Boxing Union. 

Lets talk about how he got here. I've known Haithem since 2007. I was a boxing Official within the Amateur Boxing Association of England when I saw this technical kid who could strike from any angle. He was a boxer with Maltese origin who later on represented Malta in the AIBA World Championships 2009 in Milan, Italy. He continued to box in the UK and Malta under the Malta Amateur Boxing Federation. 

Six years later, he joined the Professional Boxing Ranks and appointed Patrick Schaerrer who had organised for him to visit Australia under the supervision of Coach Nudge Meli. While in Australia, he competed straight at the highest level and soon after stepping foot in Australia he won the New South Wales, State Championship at Super Lightweight in March 2016. The following year he won the Oceana Pacific Boxing Federation Light weight title in March of 2017. In July of the same year, Haithem also won the National Lightweight Title. 

History was made when Haithem fought and won the World Boxing Council Mediterranean Super Featherwieght Title held in Malta. 
 
Haithem spent most of 2019 battling an injury to his right shoulder and despite the injury he made a successful return to the ring on October 2020 at the Montekristo Estates.

Now is time to reach for the goals and set the path for others to follow. 

   

 

By James Blears


In these eerie times, when bird song drowns out piffling traffic rumble,  deafening  tinnitus gives you a fleeting chance to ring the changes,  in the empty  void of a metropolis, where Batman and Superman have gone AWOL, as  even they`re  self- isolating.
So now utterly bereft, against the backdrop canvass of an Edvard Munch  “Scream” landscape,  there`s a chance to bridge it, by knuckling down to a basic exercise routine.
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One chore which tends to define an individual, especially a boxer, is skipping.  Muhammad Ali seemed to perform this so effortlessly with the minimum of apparent sweat beads, in a deceptively indolent manner, as a languid extension of his naturally brilliant coordination. In his most sublime ring moments, his footwork clicked in and mimicked it, minus the rope. It took on an irresistible life of its own.


At the other end of the scale, lumbering puncture lumbar Liston, labored to lift those massive saber shaped thighs high enough to clear the whirring rope.  It was a tour de force accomplishment,  accompanied by  the rasp of  James Brown`s  rendition of Night Train, with its unrelenting unnerving beat.  A bemused worried looking Ed Sullivan introduced Sonny, skipping on one his TV show.  It seemed to disjointedly defy logic…what on earth was he doing there? I mean Sonny…not Ed, who looked like a bit of a Charlie!
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Mike Tyson used the skipping rope almost like an offensive weapon.  His thick rock wrists rotated it like a lasso, and every now and then, he`d turn over the engine, increasing its tempo threefold for one electrifying squat jump. It was a woe betide cracking bullwhip warning, that he simply wasn`t messing about or fooling!  This was as real as it gets!
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The genius guile which perpetually fascinates, wrapped up like candy floss, is the gilded ribbon of Sugar Ray Robinson. A gifted natural at just about everything he turned or lent his hand to, Ray was the Fred Astaire of jumping rope.  He teased it, flicked it, uncoiled and snaked it, signing his name in the dust with its strands.  He varied the tempo, swopped it from two hands to one, swooping in to seductively dance a tango.  Ray`s philosophy was that every action had to be in rhythm and in perfect tempo with his heart. That was his one and only concession. Ray was also an accomplished tap dancer, using these natural skills to dazzle and appease the gods. It was sheer poetry in motion.  An  absolute treat and a delight to behold.


Similar perfection sought and located with running.  Coated in a mechanic`s overalls, Ray glided down the streets, as a rosy dawn turned night into day. Often as not he`d swivel like a piston and run backwards.  Joe Louis praised Ray saying he could knock you out from either a forward or backwards vantage point.


Muhammad Ali wasn`t daft.  He used this deft trick a few years later in Zaire to clip, dip, rip and almost trip up a bemused, befuddled and badly dehydrated Young George Foreman.  The only other man to drop George so hard was Ron Lyle, although he couldn`t make it stick. Gil Clancy saw to that!


Be mesmerized by Sugar Ray Leonard in the 1976 Olympic Final, against lanky Cuban southpaw KO artist Andreas Aldama.  On perfectly coordinated “Rope a lope” legs,  circling  away to the left, his smooth chin slipping the Cuban`s long right leads,  which were flailing and failing, catching and scooping up mere fresh air. Then suddenly coming back, moving inside to precisely drill the chest and face, with the ruthless cunning of a predator, yet to elegantly move out of retaliation range, only to ease back in, pecking and then decking,  with stunning left hooks to the face, jaw and cheekbones.


The flustered, floundering, drowning Cuban had to be saved in the dying seconds of the third and final round. He`d fallen out of the nurturing amateur nest, landing on the sidewalk with a fledgling splat!  Ray of course, was the darling of the adoring crowd, who by this time, were eating out of the palm of his hand.  As Sam Goldwyn once alliterated:  “He exuded both warmth and charmth.”
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Rocky Marciano used running in a different and bludgeoning way.  A glutton for hard core, curbstone  Spartan punishment during his grueling  training rigmarole routines,  Rocky used to run extraordinary distances in best foot forward heavy army boots.  Something Marvelous Marvin Hagler emulated years later in Cape Cod. It`s rumored that Rocky would sometimes set out on a fifty mile walk, leaving others floundering in his pounding wake!  A trek/ on track knack to splendid conditioning.
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No fighter I`ve ever seen in Mexico trained with more dedication than Juan Manuel Marquez.  In the Gilberto Roman/Romanza Gym,  he lay on the floor of the ring, someone sprawled  across his lower legs, he leaned out into mid air and started to do sit ups. What seemed like an eternity later, someone shouted: “TIME!” and he stopped. By that juncture, Juan`s stomach muscles were stretched as tight as classical Spanish guitar strings.


I asked him how many sits ups he`d just done, to which he ruefully replied: “I dunno. I haven`t got the foggiest or the faintest idea?  I just do three minute rounds worth of em!”

Home on the range, our road remains horrifically deserted.  I`m earnestly debating if I should take the lead and amble along with the dog, going out into heat of the midday sun.   After all …I am an Englishman!