Exotic Destinations And Amateur Boxing’s Evolution

One of the perks of being a sports journalist is I get to travel to some awesome places, but I had never considered the prospect of going to the land of ‘Borat!’. However, the World Amateur Boxing Championships were in Kazakhstan, so as the ringside reporter for BBC TV – I was sent there.

The country was really interesting – home to more than 130 ethnicities (talk about diverse!). And the people were welcoming and hospitable. The boxing wasn’t bad either as GB boxing came away with two bronze medals – after Andrew Selby and Anthony Fowler both made it to the last four in their weight divisions.

The home nation took it to another level though, winning four golds, two silvers and two bronze medals. They really are a boxing super power.

In my column a few weeks back I touched on the fact that there would be no head guards at the championships. Well, the change certainly caused a stir. A number of top boxers were eliminated in the early rounds because of cuts, and other top fighters complained about having to fight five bouts in 10 days without protection.

Of course the chorus of displeasure came from those who did not medal, but despite AIBA, the world boxing governing body, telling me that the number of cuts was not hugely significant, I can see a serious debate coming about whether to bring the head guards back. Watch this space…

– This column first appeared in The Voice Newspaper