AIBA President and Chairman of WSB Board Ching-Kuo Wu

A message from the AIBA President and Chairman of WSB Board

Dear Boxing Friends and Colleagues around the world,

As you are all well aware, the World Series of Boxing (WSB) was developed to promote the sport of boxing and to give additional competition opportunities and financial benefits to boxers during their careers in boxing. In addition, through the success of the innovative and revolutionary initiative, our sport has received more coverage from the global media/press and more interest from the commercial market than was anticipated.

The WSB 1st season started in November 2010 and ended in May 2011 with great success and I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely and deeply congratulate the owners and family of all WSB Franchises, especially:

• The BA Group for Paris United;
• The Kazakhstan Boxing Federation for Astana Arlans;
• The Boxing Federation of Russia and Dynamo Group for Dynamo Moscow;
• A Private Group for Milan Thunder;
• Gilan Holding for Baku Fires;
• A private investor for Pohang Poseidons;
• The Yeland Group for Beijing Dragons;
• The Saran Media Group for Istanbulls; and
• A private Swiss company invested in by an Azerbaijani investor for the 4 Franchises in WSB Americas .

Now, for the WSB 2nd Season, I would like you to join me in welcoming two new investors who are launching the following two new Franchises:

• TransStadia from India for the Mumbai Team; and
• A private marketing group and the German Boxing Federation from Germany for the Leipzig Leopards.

I am also pleased to announce the relaunch of our Mexican franchise, the Mexico City Guerreros.

However, in order to maintain a 12 franchised team competition format, the American Conference was reduced to two franchised teams following a proposal by the WSB.

All of these owners and Franchises' own National Boxing Federations have greatly invested not only financially but also their passion and time to make the WSB and their teams one of the most valuable commodities in the sports business market. We have fully committed to each other to make the WSB very successful by creating a respected competition with very competitive and attractive event productions.

By witnessing the outcomes of the WSB 1st Season, a strong competitive balance within the competition is clear. it is interesting to note that the least invested franchised team won the Team Finals; however, the most invested franchised team failed to produce any individual Champion.  As AIBA and WSB truly believe that the ultimate success in the sport of boxing will only take place by producing the fairest and most transparent scoring inside the ring, our utmost efforts will be given continuously to produce true winners by preventing any possible manipulation in our organizations.

With the introduction of the new scoring system which greatly improved the Referees & Judges management system, there is absolutely no room for anyone to control the results of the competition from outside of the ring.

I have always trusted and believed in our new established culture for a transparent, clean and honest organization and I am very proud of this trend. If any outsider tries to ruin this culture by creating rumors and untruth speculations, I am committed to fight until justice prevails.

On the eve of the AIBA World Boxing Championships Baku 2011, the National Member Federations and global boxing family are dedicated to achieving the best possible results and to bringing glory to their respective countries.  In addition, as we are also preparing for the WSB 2nd Season which will start soon after the World Championships, all boxers will be evaluated in Baku in order to be potentially recruited for the WSB Franchises.

I wish all boxers and Franchises the best for another great and successful season from November 2011. Please join me in protecting the most important AIBA/WSB principle, "Let the Champion born inside the Ring!" not in any other place.

Best personal regards,

Ching-Kuo Wu
AIBA President
& Chairman of WSB Board