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

EUBC President Franco Falcinelli and TBA counterpart Pichai Chunhavajira have both signed the HeadsUp! charter this week at AIBA's headquarters in Lausanne.

EUBC has become the second Confederation to sign the charter after Asian Boxing Confederation President Serik Konakbayev did so at the Doha World Championships. 

"As EUBC President I am honoured to support the AIBA’s HeadsUp! programme," said Falcinelli.

"Through the HeadsUp! charter, we will collaborate closely with the National Federations in Europe to support local projects which epitomise the boxing values.

"We are fully committed to improve the perception of boxing in the years to come and HeadsUp! is the perfect vehicle to achieve this objective."

AIBA President C K Wu added: "It is another strong push for AIBA’s HeadsUp! programme as EUBC demonstrates its full support for our initiative to put boxers first.

"European Boxing Confederation is the biggest AIBA Confederation and I am confident that with this new step we will be able to implement HeadsUp! projects in Europe with the support of our 50 National Federations."

TBA is the third National Federation in Asia to link up with HeadsUp! following the Qatar Boxing Federation and the Chinese Taipei Boxing Federation.

It is hoped the partnership will help foster AIBA initiatives to promote the development and growth of boxing in Thailand and the region.

"Thailand Boxing Association has always been committed to the development of our sport and with the signing of the HeadsUp! charter we will be giving another push to our efforts to put boxers first," said Chunhavajira.

"Thailand has a strong boxing history and through HeadsUp! we will be able to ensure the sustainable development of our boxers."

Wu added: "HeadsUp is receiving a very strong support among AIBA’s National Federations and the signing of the charter with Thailand Boxing Association is another proof of the global endorsement of our programme within our boxing family.

"I am confident that TBA will become a valuable partner of AIBA in ensuring that our athletes and officials enjoy sustainable future in our sport."

The AIBA Medical Commission was working behind the scenes at boxing competitions throughout last 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 is also a 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.