Ambassadors of the event, which is scheduled to take place from May 19 to 27, include female boxers and referees and judges. 

British flyweight Nicola Adams, the first woman to win an Olympic boxing title when she won gold at London 2012, heads a six-strong boxer list.

It also features India’s Mary Kom and America’s Marlen Esparza, the two flyweight bronze medallists at London 2012, as well as Brazil’s Adriana Araujo, a lightweight bronze medallist in the British capital.

Completing the list of boxers is Bulgaria’s Stanimira Petrova, the 2014 AIBA world bantamweight champion, and Moroccan middleweight Khadija Mardi.

Algeria’s Kheira Sidi Yakoub, the first female five-star official from AIBA, and Canada’s Jennifer Huggins, a three-star AIBA referee, have also been named.

AIBA state the ambassadors have been selected not only for their abilities in the ring, but for their position as positive role models for aspiring boxers and women in general.

Kom’s journey to winning five world flyweight titles has been the subject of a major biopic film, while Esparza had a CNN documentary filmed about her rise to becoming an Olympic bronze medallist.

Adams, who received an honorary degree from Leeds University last year, said: "The World Championships are the perfect showcase for our sport and the tournament has scaled massively with the field getting stronger at every edition. 

"AIBA is really pushing the women’s side of boxing and it fills me with great pride to be an ambassador for this year’s competition.

"I'm going into the competition fully focussed on winning gold, which would be an incredible achievement and ideal preparation for Rio [2016]."

Petrova became Bulgaria’s first female world champion in 2014, while Araujo is one of Brazil’s best female medal hopes ahead of the country hosting this year’s Olympic Games.  

Mardi and Yakoub are credited for a huge surge in the popularity of women’s boxing in the Arab world, and AIBA sees Huggins as a valuable inclusion given her "endless enthusiasm for the sport she loves and associated charity work".

"I am grateful and overjoyed at all of the opportunities I have been presented with AIBA," said Huggins.

"I am honoured to be part of the ambassadors programme, to represent AIBA referees and judges and to contribute to the promotion of women in boxing."

The ninth edition of the Women’s World Boxing Championships will provide 12 of the 300-plus competing athletes with Olympic quota places for Rio 2016 later this year - four at each of the three Olympic weight classes; 51 kilograms, 60 kg and 75kg.

The tournament was originally due to take place from February 1 to 14, but an AIBA spokesperson told insidethegames in November it had been pushed back three months in order to give organisers more time to prepare.

The controversial decision means it will come after the European Olympic Qualification tournament, which is currently taking place in Turkish city Samsun.

A total of six qualification berths for Rio 2016 will be available in the three Olympic women’s boxing categories, with two to be awarded in each.

If a boxer meets the qualification criteria at both the European qualifier and the World Championships, their place at the second event will take priority.

The spot they give up will then be given to the next highest-ranked athlete and if two competitors from the same country have earned their ticket to Rio 2016 in the same weight category, the respective National Federation will choose which boxer to send to the Brazilian city.