World Series Boxing Limited has been appointed the television co-ordinator and exclusive television rights distributor of the inaugural Boxing World Cup.

Sanctioned by AIBA, the International Amateur Boxing Association the event takes place in Astana, Kazakhstan from 3rd – 8th June 2002.

This event pitches the world’s 12 best boxing teams against each other for the $120,000 prize money. Each team consist of 12 boxers, one in each of the AIBA weight categories. The 12 participating teams are divided into 4 groups, with each group member from a different continent.

The semi-finals and finals are available live and exclusive on June 7th and June 8th and in addition, a 2 x 1 hour highlights package is available.

The Chairman of World Series Boxing is sports television expert Adrian Metcalfe and the Managing Director is David McConachie who has been actively involved at all levels of boxing for some 15 years.

‘ We are extremely pleased to be working alongside AIBA. This event marks a major development in Olympic boxing; it shows the amateur status of the sport is disappearing as prize money becomes available. It’s a very dynamic sport which, outside the Olympics, hasn’t previously received the recognition by the television companies that it deserves. However, there is now encouraging progress as international broadcasters become much more receptive, understanding that this is a quality sport offering. As testament to this, the World Cup highlights are already guaranteed to be seen in 41 countries.’

David McConachie, Managing Director, World Series Boxing.

Adrian Metcalfe, a former Head of Sport for Eurosport and Channel 4 sees the development of amateur boxing into a major television sport as inevitable:

‘Olympic type boxing is changing. It is fast and skillful over four two-minute rounds with on screen scoring and non-stop action. The fearsome Cubans are leading this new revolution with prize money keeping young champions in the sport and new events like the World Cup will hugely increase the interest of boxing fans worldwide. ‘

For further information please contact:

Visit: http://www.aiba.net/aibav.html or call +44 1727 847082