Based upon the four pillars of health, education, sport and sustainability, AIBA launched the HeadsUp! campaign at last month’s World Boxing Championships in Doha with a focus on training boxers to maintain a heads-up stance to help prevent concussions and cuts.

NOC of Zambia President Myriam Moyo and AIBA counterpart C K Wu signed off the HeadsUp! charter in the Olympic capital Lausanne.

Since 2010, the NOC of Zambia, in conjunction with the International Olympic Committee and the Zambian Government, have operated an Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka.

It's anticipated that the OYDC in Zambia's capital will become a major boxing hub for the region, allowing boxers to use the facilities as well as coaches for training courses, and also provide a scouting platform for promising local talent.

"This agreement with the NOC of Zambia is a perfect fit for our HeadsUp! initiative," said Wu.

"By collaborating with the new Olympic Youth Development Centre, we will be nurturing future African champions and it is one step further in fulfilling AIBA’s role in Africa."

Moyo added: "We are delighted to partner with AIBA around the HeadsUp! project as it will strengthen the boxing community not only in Zambia but in the entire region, and inspire future generations of women and men African boxers."

During his visit to the World Championships, Asian Boxing Confederation President Serik Konakbayev became the first to sign the HeadsUp! charter, which is set to be shared with all 196 National Federations around the world.

The AIBA Medical Commission has been working behind the scenes at boxing competitions throughout this year, concluding with a series of HeadsUp! workshops with World Championship referees in Qatar’s capital to help them anticipate issues before they occur and to warn boxers leading with the head.

The training of coaches will also be part of the ongoing education of the boxers in a bid to ensure that they go into bouts, not only with the correct stance, but the right mind-set to ultimately change the behaviour of leading with the head that came with the psychological protection of guards.

In 2012, AIBA’s Executive Committee unanimously passed the motion to end the use of headguards in all of their elite men's competitions on the back of the Medical Commission’s study of 11,000 AIBA bouts around the world.

The following year's World Championships in Almaty, the first not to feature headguards in three decades, showed a decrease in the number of concussions compared to the 2011 competition in Baku, it is claimed.

Headguards have been worn by boxers at every edition of the Olympics since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, however, they are set to be scrapped for Rio 2016. 


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October 2014: No concussions at Asian Games vindicates scrapping of headguards, claims AIBA
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