India to host Women’s World Boxing Championships in 2023

New Delhi: India will host the women’s world boxing championships in 2023 in New Delhi where a new review system based on artificial intelligence will be used for the first time, the game’s global governing body (IBA) said on Wednesday.

India will host the women’s premier event, two years after the country was stripped of the hosting rights of the men’s event for not paying the requisite fee to the global governing body.

India has never conducted the men’s world championship but it will be the third time that the elite women’s competition will be held in the country having conducted the championships in 2006 and 2018 in New Delhi. India also hosted the women’s youth world championships in 2017.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the International Boxing Association (IBA) and the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) in the presence of IBA President Umar Kremlev and BFI President Ajay Singh here on Wednesday.

“The women’s world championship will be held in Delhi in March 2023,” Singh told reporters. “Women’s boxing has shown massive improvement, we are among the top countries in the world. Last edition we were number 3 and we aim to improve that. “We are expecting participation from about 75-100 countries, about 1,500 boxers and coaches.” The championship will also see the introduction of a historic bout review



system.

“The world championship in India will be the first event in which the review system based on technology will be used. That is any dispute can be reviewed during the bout itself,” Singh said. The event will also increase in prize money with a total prize pool of approximately Rs 19.50 crore (USD 2.4 million). The gold medallists will be awarded with approximately Rs 81 lakh (USD 100,000).

The hosting rights of the event to India comes as a significant development as BFI had lost the hosting rights of the 2021 event to Serbia after failing to pay the host fee, prompting the International Boxing Association, then known as (AIBA), to terminate its agreement. At the last edition of the women’s event in Turkey, India had returned with a haul of three medals, including Nikhat Zareen’s gold in the flyweight category.

The IBA has developed a new review system based on artificial intelligence which will be used for the first time during the women’s world championship next year.

“It will be based on artificial intelligence, we will have four cameras, doing analysis from every corner of the punches. It will be monitored by an evaluator and if something is unclear they can come while the bout is going,” IBA Secretary General George A. Yerolimpos told PTI. “We will have a lot of officials monitoring it, so no one can bypass the system,” he added.