The best of the best will meet Friday, Sept. 13 at the Coast Hotel and Convention Centre in downtown Langley.
The WBC Canadian Championships will see the “Best from the East take on the Best from the West.”
The newly formed World Boxing Council International Amateur System will see the first ever National team selected that evening.
The WBC has a long history in boxing, and Canada has always played a major role being one of the founding members of the WBC. In the boxing world winning a WBC title is the ultimate recondition you can receive. A WBC title means that you have achieved the very pinnacle of boxing.
The day after the WBC Canadian Championships, the biggest fight of the decade will take place when WBC Welterweight Champion Floyd Mayweather takes on WBC Super Welterweight Champion Saul Alvarez.
“The connection with the WBC is significant and meaningful,” says event organizer Dave Allison, of Langley City Boxing, the host club. “There are going to be some great fights and there is a certain electricity when you have the best fighting the best.”
Canada is in many ways out front in the new order of amateur boxing world wide. The International Amateur Boxing Association, or IABA as it is known, has been the authority for amateur boxing for the past three decades. During the last two decades the amateur version of the sport has been in decline.
The decline has been the result of the introduction of a computer scoring system that ultimately changed the sport and widened the gap between amateur and pro boxing. Many boxing fans rejected the amateur version of the sport.
In Canada the boxing community reacted and formed alternate associations to manage amateur boxing. These associations went back to using the 20 and 10 point must scoring system that had been used by boxing for years.
These associations have been in operation for years and have developed clubs, boxers, officials and fan base that has supported a revival of amateur boxing in Canada. These associations have come together and formed a national association and have affiliated with the WBC.
“When boxing fans see the WBC Canadian Championships they will see exciting boxing using the rules and standards of the 2016 Olympics. For the most part these rules have been used by the WBC affiliates for some years. IABA changed their rules for the 2016 trying to reverse the damage they have done to the sport. It will not change the sport overnight. IABA is trying to go where the WBC affiliates are now,” said Allison.
