The cancellation of an Irish Boxing International earlier this month is causing a stir internationally. The Senior men’s Irish team were scheduled to host Kazakhstan in a match to mark the 75th anniversary of the National Stadium on St Patrick’s weekend.
Promotion to boxing clubs had taken place as a ‘thank you’ for support given to the national set up over the past year but the event, and another scheduled for Wexford the same weekend were cancelled in the days before citing ‘visa issues’ for the travelling teams.
An international sports website ‘Inside the Games’ is now reporting that the match had never been sanctioned by the Governing Body in Kazakhstan and was instead to involve boxers from a regional club in Almaty.
Kazakhstan hosted last year’s World Championships where they topped the medals table and Ireland finished sixth with medals for Jason Quigley and Joe Ward.
The International Amateur Boxing Association and the Kazakhstan equivalent have denied any knowledge of the match having been scheduled but there is no talk of any sanction being imposed.
It is likely that the quality of boxers would have been high but it does suggest that the IABA needs to be a little more careful in its billing of matches.
