Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with the Umar Kremlev, head of the controversial boxing organization, the International Boxing Association (IBA), over the Dec. 2-3 weekend to plan for the inauguration of a new National Boxing Training Center and to discuss how Serbia will both support the IBA and grow boxing.
Vucic and Kremlev were accompanied by boxing legend Roy Jones Jr., as well as former boxing heavyweight champions Alexander Povetkin and Denis Lebedev, according to Insidethegame.biz.
The new boxing center will have seating capacity for 3,500. A point on the meeting’s agenda was also to organize a future IBA Champions Night in Belgrade.
The IBA, however, has been highly controversial in recent years, with the International Olympic Committee having stripped of its ability to organize contenders for the Olympics and be recognized by the Olympic games.
The IBA was suspended by the IOC 2019, following questions regarding refereeing, finances and ethics and the fact that Gazprom was effectively the sole sponsor of the IBA. The IBA has protested the stripping.
Photo of IBA boxing president Umar Kremlev by Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
