I am delighted that my old sparring partner Dr C K Wu has been re-elected as President of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) for a third term. There is no-one better equipped to oversee his branch of the business.

Many of his reformist ideas have revived and transformed a sport that was in danger of losing its Olympic status because of the malpractices of a previous regime.

There is no doubt that since his initial election in 2006 he has kept his promise to make what used to be known as amateur boxing more honest and transparent, restoring its credibility.

But what still puzzles me is that this does not seem to be sufficient. Why continue his crusade to try and embrace every facety of boxing, from the professional game downwards, under his personal umbrella?

AIBA are not boxing's FIFA - and thank God for that!

Unification of Government of this fractured sport may be an ideal, but logically it is not one that is achievable in his lifetime or mine. Nor should it be. The two aspects of glove are worlds apart.

C K Wu was re-elected President of the AIBA at the organisation's Congress in Jeju ahead of the Women's World Boxing Championships ©AIBA



At 68, Taiwan's Dr Wu has won many battles but he cannot win the war.

Among his many successes are the inclusion of women's boxing in the Olympics and establishing their own World Championships for the ladies who punch; the removal of the word "amateur" as well as, in men's major international events, headguards and vests (though the jury may still be out on that one); the introduction of purse money for World Series Boxing (WSB) - which the British Lionhearts will now re-enter under a new franchise - and AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) which may well deter some decent prospects from entering the fully-fledged pro sport too soon.

Plus a more plausible and less corruptible scoring system.

I am all for that.

However professional promoters understandably will continue to protect their own fiefdoms by rejecting AIBA's advances.

Indeed, the only figure among them who intimated even mild interest was Richard Schaefer, the former Swiss banker who ran America's Golden Boy. But he has now left the organisation.

Dr Wu should be content that under his governance AIBA, and the boxing it controls, is now in a better state than it has ever been. Leave the pros to fight their own battles.

What I do sincerely hope is that any previously mooted notion of introducing fully-fledged pros, including established world champions, into the Olympics has been scrapped.

Those of us who watched the current multi-world heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko's  destruction of leading mandatory contender Kubrat Pulev, a hitherto undefeated bruiser from Bulgaria, in Hamburg last Saturday night will testify how foolhardy and dangerous this is.

Allowing the likes of Klitschko, Floyd Mayweather jnr, Manny Pacquiao, Sergey Kovalev, Amir Khan or even less accomplished pros loose on comparative tyros even under restrictive Olympic regulations would be courting potentially disastrous mismatches.

Totally unfair. Imagine a club tennis player getting through to an Olympic final to face Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer or Andy Murray. It would be the same in boxing.

Allowing the likes of Wladimir Klitschko to contest in the Olympic Games against current amateur boxers would be a huge mismatch ©Getty Images


As I say, what Dr Wu has achieved so far is admirable but he now must tread warily lest he takes professionalising the sport too far. For he will be aware there are still those on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who do not share an enthusiasm for boxing and would happily see it ditched, especially in the event of a series of ring mishaps or, heaven forbid, a fatality.

APB boxing, where single champions will be crowned in 10 weight divisions, seems to be setting itself up as an alternative to the pro system's diverse and sometime meaningless labels but laudable as this may seem it will still be no contest when it comes to attracting global public interest.

The crowds will still flock to watch mega promotions like the 80,000 blockbuster at Wembley Stadium between Carl Froch and George Groves, or this weekend's multi-million dollar showdown featuring Pacquiao against New York's Chris Algieri in Macau.

When the freshly-constituted British Lions enter the WSB fray the home venue it is more likely to London's York Hall, where the capacity is measured in hundreds. Would they fill Wembley Arena's 10,000 seats or even the 7,00-seater Copperbox in the Olympic Park?

Even with the upgrades the AIBA have made to amateur boxing, they could still find it hard to fill stadiums as easily as major professional boxing bouts ©Getty Images



Both WSB and APB need to unearth their own superstar as main attractions - Anthony Joshua would have been a tremendous draw - but like him they surely would be snapped up by professional promoters who, backed by TV contracts, have flapping chequebooks that even AIBA's deep coffers cannot match.

Meanwhile we should savour another virtuoso performance from Wladimir Klitschko, my favourite heavyweight champion since Muhammad Ali.

With his ex-champ-turned freedom fighter brother Vitali, now the mayor of Kyiv, at his shoulder during the victory celebrations, Klitschko draped himself in the Ukrainian flag and stuck his two index fingers in the air.

Was it a reminder that he is the world's numero uno - or a symbolic gesture aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin?

Jimmy Connors once said that a Centre Court crowd would pay to watch two monkeys contest a Wimbledon final. In Germany, they'd certainly pay to cheer their adopted idol fight Mickey Mouse. Though in fairness few of his opponents would fit that description.

Of his last five foes, four have had unbeaten records. Saturday's victory was his 17th successive title defence in a second reign as champion and he is now 24-2 overall in world title fights.

He has not lost since 2004, has unified three major titles and is inching closer to two of boxing's most illustrious records.

His 17 consecutive defences are third all time in the heavyweight division behind Larry Holmes' 20 and Joe Louis' 25, the record for any weight class. Klitschko has also held the title for a just over than eight-and-a-half years, second only to Louis' heavyweight record of 11 years, 8 months, 8 days.

Wladimir Klitschko has become a true ambassador for the sport of boxing ©Getty Images



The 2006 Olympic champion, now 38, has never avoided fighting anyone - except of course his elder brother brother, who held the WBC title until he quit to enter the political ring earlier this year.

It is rare to encounter any sporting figure these days, especially in the fight game, who is both a gentleman and a scholar. However, the description fits Wladimir Klitschko like the gloves which earned him Olympic gold medal in Atlanta and various versions of the world title

Unlike some, I have always been an admirer of the Klitschkos,men of genuine intellect who are more likely to be seen with a copy of Goethe under their arm than The Ring Magazine, dignified and sleaze-free ambassadors for their sport. Both are multi-lingual and hold doctorates in sports science and philosophy. They have been great for the game.

So what now for "Wlad the Impaler"? He fights again in the US in January but my guess is that it is all building up to an eventual clash of Olympic champions between him and Joshua within the next 18 months.

When Wladimir defeated Russia's Alexander Povetkin in Moscow last year it was the first fight between respective Olympic heavyweight champions since Ali encountered Joe Frazier and George Foreman in the seventies.

They have already sparred with each other and Klitschko v Joshua would be any promoter's dream fight. But you never know, the way boxing is going it might even be the Olympic super-heavyweight final in Rio!

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.