Representatives of the initiative group of regional federations announced a systemic crisis in the Ukrainian Boxing Federation and called for transparency and compliance with statutory norms ahead of the FBU conference scheduled for December 12.
The head of the FBU Control and Audit Commission, Konstantin Kalashnikov, announced that an initiative group had been formed from legally registered and actively operating regional branches, with about 15 organizations joining.
“The Ukrainian Boxing Federation is in a systemic crisis, so we have formed an initiative group of actively operating regional organizations. Our task is to restore the right to vote to the real federations and prevent decisions from being made behind closed doors or replaced by ‘paper’ branches; We will defend this right at the conference on December 12,” said Konstantin Kalashnikov, chairman of the FBU’s control and audit commission, at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday.
Kalashnikov also stated that the initiative group sees signs of a “raider takeover” and a violation of the principles of sports democracy in the actions of the current leadership. He separately drew attention to the risks to the international reputation of Ukrainian boxing due to cooperation with the IBA contrary to the position of the International Olympic Committee, and also announced the group’s intention to defend the position of the regions at the FBU conference.
In turn, FBU Vice President Andriy Kotelnyk noted that part of the boxing community does not support the split within the federation, but considers it unacceptable to ignore the IOC’s recommendations to distance itself from the IBA.
“The Ukrainian Boxing Association was created by an initiative group of five federations not to split or divide Ukrainian boxing, but to keep it in the Olympic Games. We supported the course of joining World Boxing, as recommended by the IOC, and want Ukrainian boxing to develop as a public, not a privatized structure,” said FBU Andriy Kotelnyk.
Kotelnyk also said that the initiative group had prepared a draft of the updated charter, which, according to them, preserves the role of regional centers, as well as a program for the development of Olympic boxing for the 2026–2028 and 2029–2032 cycles. He added that a number of companies have expressed their willingness to support the FBU, contributing approximately 25 million per year to the needs of Olympic boxing.
FBU presidential candidate and president of the Sumy Regional Boxing Federation Mykola Kravchenko presented his vision for reforms and a development program. Among his priorities, he named the institutional unification of the federation, fair and transparent elections of governing bodies, mechanisms for independent control, as well as financial motivation for athletes, coaches, and judges. He also supported the development of the National Boxing League and the project of a club championship based on the model of clubs symbolically associated with the structures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Ukrainian boxing has always been based on character, discipline, and tradition, but today it is time to move forward more boldly and in a more orderly manner. I propose institutional unification of the federation and transparent management without division into ‘us’ and ‘them’, fair and transparent elections of governing bodies, mechanisms for independent control and clear financial motivation for athletes, coaches and judges,” Mykola Kravchenko emphasized.
The president of the Kyiv City Boxing Federation, Oleksandr Negoda, gave examples of the work of the capital’s center and critically assessed the interaction with the leadership of the FBU. In particular, he reported that in 2025, three new halls were opened in Kyiv, one of which is in the Kyiv Sports Lyceum, and the closed city championship among youth and juniors attracted 428 participants, compared to the previous record of 170. At the same time, according to him, the Kyiv Federation’s request to include the Kyiv Cup tournament in the FBU calendar remained unanswered.
“We hold high-level capital championships and pay cash prizes to motivate our boxers, but the FBU completely ignores our appeals, in particular regarding the Kyiv Cup tournament. At the same time, at the last Ukrainian Cup, the prize was a certificate for 400 hryvnia—the Ukrainian Cup champion receives 400 hryvnia. How do you like that motivation?” asked the president of the Kyiv City Boxing Federation.
Negoda also drew attention to what he called “manipulation” with regional representation and referred to data from relevant agencies on the number of active regional federations within the FBU. He stated that some of the branches, which, according to him, are not active in all-Ukrainian competitions, retain the right to vote, while a number of federations with results at the national and international levels, in the opinion of the official, are deprived of this right.
Ukrainian boxer Alexander Usyk has lost his undisputed world champion status after voluntarily relinquishing his WBO belt, the World Boxing Organization said in an official statement.
“The World Boxing Organization (WBO) has announced that it has received official notification from Alexander Usyk’s team regarding the future of the WBO heavyweight championship title. After careful consideration, Usyk has decided to relinquish the title,” the statement on social media platform X said.
WBO President Gustavo Olivieri called Usyk “the champion of champions” in his comment.
“The WBO expresses its deep respect, admiration, and gratitude to Alexander Usyk, the undefeated WBO world champion in two weight classes, who has earned and demonstrated all the rights, privileges, and honors associated with the title of WBO super champion. His career is one of the most outstanding and historic in the modern era of boxing,“ he said.
The WBO emphasized in its statement that the organization’s doors ”will always remain open.“
”We accept and respect his decision to relinquish the WBO heavyweight super champion title. This is not a farewell, but, as his team put it, a respectful pause. The doors of the WBO will always remain open to Alexander Usyk and his team,” the organization said.
Usyk still remains the champion in the WBA, WBC, and IBF categories.
Alexander Usyk won the title of undisputed world champion by defeating Daniel Dubois by knockout in the fifth round of the fight.
The fight was for the WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO undisputed heavyweight world titles. It was a rematch: the boxers first met in the ring in August 2023, when Usyk knocked out Dubois in the ninth round. Usyk regained the IBF title, which he had been forced to relinquish because he was unable to defend it at the time, and defended his titles in the other three divisions.
The session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has unanimously voted to include boxing in the program of the 2028 Olympic Games to be held in the United States.
“Thank you for approving the return of boxing to the Olympic program. We look forward to a great Olympic boxing tournament,” IOC President Thomas Bach said after the vote.
Bach noted that the competition will be organized by the World Boxing Federation. World Boxing was founded in 2023 after the severance of relations between the IOC and the International Boxing Association (IBA). The 2028 Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles from July 14 to 30.
The V Summer All-Ukrainian Boxing Gymnasium took place in Uman, where boys and juniors from Ukraine and Kyiv took part.
The following boxers became champions from Kyiv:
? Kirill Tkachuk, 2010, 1st category, 42 kg
? Mykola Dobrolyubov, 2009, 1st category, 66 kg
? Pasichenko Oleksandr, 2008, KMS, 48 kg
? Adrian Krasnopilskyi, 2008, KMS, 54 kg
? Konstantin Gayevsky, 2009, 1st category, 54 kg
? Maidukov Mark, 2009, 1st category, 48 kg
? Kravchenko Mykyta, 2010, 1st category, 57 kg
The President of the Kyiv City Federation Oleksandr Nehoda congratulated the young Kyiv residents on their victory.
“We have a good team and systematic work, which is aimed at constantly holding open rings where our boxers can gain combat practice,” said Oleksandr Nehoda.
According to the president of the boxing federation, the next events that athletes and coaches are preparing for are the World Gymnasium in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), which will take place on August 19-27, as well as the European Championships in Maribor (Slovenia), which will take place on August 15-26, 2023.
The gymnasium is held to stimulate the development of physical culture and sports among students of general secondary education institutions of the II-III levels.
The cooperation between the Kyiv Boxing Federation and the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture opens up new opportunities for the comprehensive development of students. This partnership is a model of how the academic and sports worlds can come together to achieve a common goal. This opinion was expressed by Oleksandr Nehoda, President of the Kyiv Boxing Federation, and Petro Kulikov, Rector of the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to Oleksandr Nehoda, the state’s support of Ukrainian athletes at international competitions is insufficient.
“The state and the Ministry (of Youth and Sports – ed.) allocate funds, and there is also support for young athletes through universities, but this is usually not enough. When we were preparing to participate in the European Games, the funding for meals per day per athlete was 410 hryvnias. With such funds, it is impossible to follow a specialized sports diet. Therefore, we (Kyiv Boxing Federation – ed.) had to purchase a significant part of the food on our own. The same applies to other supplies for the athletes,” Nehoda emphasized.
According to the KFB President, the problem of financing high-quality training of athletes requires a systematic approach from both the state and private sponsors and patrons.
In his turn, the rector of the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Petro Kulikov, emphasized that his university has created a unique system of support for youth sports and healthy lifestyles, and is improving its sports infrastructure.
“In recent years, KNUBA has hosted several major boxing tournaments among youth and juniors. In addition, we have developed a unique system of cooperation with the Kyiv Boxing Federation and provide premises and training facilities for both accommodation and training of young athletes. To this end, when we opened the stadium, we also opened a hotel with 50 beds to accommodate athletes from different regions of Ukraine,” he said.
Mr. Kulikov also emphasized that cooperation with sports federations should be one of the main areas of development for Ukrainian universities. This is due to both the need to popularize sports and healthy lifestyles among young people and the need to create a strong training base for Ukrainian athletes to participate in international competitions.
“Thanks to our cooperation with federations, sports such as football, basketball and boxing have begun to reach students on a large scale. My fellow rectors and I are doing our best to develop sports in our educational institutions, hold competitions and build sports facilities even in this difficult time,” the rector summarized.
Oleksandr Nehoda added that thanks to Kulikov’s initiative and the existing infrastructure, KNUBA managed to keep many promising boxers in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian youth champion Bohdan Gorgol, who won all his fights ahead of schedule.
“During all of our recent tournaments, we have been proving to both juniors and their parents that the educational and sports facilities created at KNUBA allow not only boxing, but also high-quality higher education, as KNUBA provides preferential admission to students of our boxing school. So, this year 15 of our boys and girls became students. In addition, it is interesting that the leaders of the Kyiv team today are largely from other regions of Ukraine, who, thanks to the KNUBA facilities, can both study and develop in boxing,” Nehoda emphasized.
In his opinion, the development of student boxing is of utmost importance, as this sport is the foundation of both Olympic and professional boxing.
BOXING, KNUBA, KYIV BOXING FEDERATION, SPORTS, ОЛЕКСАНДР_НЕГОДА, ПЕТРО_КУЛІКОВ
