The Silver medallist of the Moscow Olympic Games (1980), AIBA Executive Committee member and the Vice-President of the Kazakhstan’s Boxing Federation Mr. Serik Konakbayev shared his thoughts about the International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) revolutionary project AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) with the Kazakhstan Pravda (http://www.kazpravda.kz/).

AIBA is publishing for your attention, the translation from Russian of an extract of this interview.

Kazakhstan Pravda: What would you say about the new project AIBA Pro Boxing – APB?

Mr. Serik Konakbayev: This project is very important for us as APB is going to become in time the main programme of AIBA. The APB program is also one of the qualification paths for the Olympic Games in Rio-de-Janeiro. Following the first cycle of APB Competition, which will be launched this October and will last until January 2015, Title Champions in each weight category will join the list of qualified boxers for the Olympic Games.

This time, AIBA will qualify 17 boxers through WSB for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games , and 20 boxers through APB. As well as the framework of these two projects, there will be additional qualifying tournaments staged through where 26 more boxers from APB/WSB will be able to qualify for Rio.

In addition to this, boxers will get new opportunities to continue their sports career. The APB fights will feature more rounds, which means they are suitable only for the most resistant boxers.

We have applied to host the APB events for the lightweight category (60kg) in Kazakhstan. A number of leading National Team Boxers have already signed contracts with the new programme. Among them include World Champion Birzhan Zhakipov, Ilyas Suleymenov, AIBA 203 World Championships bronze medallist Berik Abdarakhmatnov and Olympic and World medallist Adilbek Niyazymbetov. I wish them all the best of luck, and I am sure that Kazakhstan boxers will show their best in APB.

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