Amateur boxing body plans to launch pro league

By Patrick Vignal

BEIJING (Reuters) - The International Boxing Association (AIBA) unveiled on Thursday plans to launch a professional league which the ruling body hopes the dominant Cuban boxers would join.

AIBA, whose traditional ground is amateur boxing and whose showcase event is the Olympics, is hoping the World League of Boxing (WLB) will start in 2010.

The WLB will be an annual, franchised-based professional league with cities, venues or companies applying to "own" a franchise and enter their team of boxers, AIBA said in a statement.

"AIBA is not just about amateur boxing, it's about boxing as a whole," AIBA president Wu Ching-Kuo told reporters to explain the WLB project, which will feature both team and individual competitions.

The ruling body is working on the project in partnership with sports marketing company IMG.

"AIBA will, with support from its national federations, help facilitate the participation of the world's best boxers in the League, and IMG will source and negotiate the franchises, and sell the commercial rights (media, sponsorship, licensing) around the world in consultation with AIBA," the statement read.

AIBA would want the boxers competing in the WLB to be allowed to also take part in the Olympics, currently open only to strictly amateur boxers, the statement added.

The exact format and rules of the WLB still have to be finalized, Wu said when presenting the project at an AIBA dinner in Beijing.

"The World League of Boxing will revolutionize the sport of boxing like never before, providing a universal form of entertainment which will capture the imagination of boxing fans around the world," Wu said.

The AIBA president said he hoped Cuba, the powerhouse of amateur boxing whose fighters are banned from turning professional and told to concentrate on serving the Communist regime, could be convinced to join the WLB.

"I hope Cuba will take part," Wu said. "I will talk to Cuba's leaders and I believe their boxers could participate."

(Editing by Jon Bramley)