What is it about boxing that causes so many black eyes and bloody noses? Out of the ring, that is.

The verbal punches now being thrown in the internecine scrap in what used to be known as amateur boxing may end up harming those the warring officials are supposed to protect: the boxers themselves.

This bitter "battle of the blazers" is seriously endangering the future of Britain's hugely-successful Olympic boxing set-up, particularly the distressing fact that the sport could, lose over £10 million ($15 million/€12 million) of its funding in the lead-up to Rio 2016.

It has certainly provoked a lively debate.

But the loss may not only be monetary. The former Labour Sports Minister Richard Caborn is threatening to resign as chairman of the Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) following a move to depose his close friend and one-time political ally Derek Mapp as head of umbrella body the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA).


In a nutshell, the in-fighting centres around a bid by the home boxing associations, notably the Scots and English, to have a greater say in the governance of the sport which Mapp, a former Sport England chair, helped revolutionise at elite level when founding BABA after the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The domestic associations claim their role, and that of constituent clubs, has been diminished by the advent of BABA and want more control over the sport and its funding.

Led by Amateur Boxing Scotland, they have called for an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held before May 28 when it seems certain Mapp will be forced out.

His removal will surely have ramifications at GB Boxing's headquarters in Sheffield, where any major upheaval could lead to the departure of well-regarded professional head coach Rob McCracken, whom Mapp appointed.


I do not believe he will stay if Mapp is replaced by a "blazer", as now seems probable.

It could also affect GB's preparations for this year's European and World Championships and future participation in the World Series of Boxing (WSB) tournament, which rewards boxers with substantial prize money.

Of course, there is more to it than that, but basically it is about a pervading resentment towards Mapp from antagonists within the game because they say he is not "a boxing person".

Now I feel a personal involvement here because it was me who actually introduced him to the sport when he was chair of Sport England six years ago. He admitted he had no boxing background but wished to learn more about it.

So I arranged a meeting between him and the then ABAE chief executive Paul King, and we embarked on a tour of London amateur clubs.

Mapp, clearly impressed by the dedication of all those involved and the merits of boxing as an antidote to crime, instantly fell in love with it and the rest, as they say, is history.

Soon afterwards Mapp, very much his own man, felt forced to quit as Sport England chief following a showdown with James Purnell, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, over plans for the future direction of the body, saying at the time: "I was mandated to produce an agenda which I was delivering on but now that has been changed and I have been dumped on."


It appears he is about to be dumped on again, for he tells us: "They [the Home Associations] are hell bent on removing me as chairman and a break-up of the BABA structure, and it looks as if they are going to win. It is the old story of the blazers wanting more power. It is all very tiresome. If they don't want me then I am not going to fight them. There are more appreciative people I can work with."

But he warns: "There are a few more episodes of this story to come yet."

What used to be amateur boxing has long been among the most blazerati-dominated of Olympic sports but it needs to be careful what it wishes for.

The 62-year-old Mapp says his only concern is to sustain the stability of GB Boxing but he certainly has other fish to fry - literally, you could say as a successful a restaurateur; a ubiquitous multi-millionaire businessman he made his fortune in the brewery business and was recently appointed High Sheriff of Derbyshire.

But there can be no argument that his commercial expertise and commitment to the sport has helped make British Boxing the envy of the world.

And I can say that as one who has had differences with him both when he ran Sport England and in his early days with BABA when I considered the axing of head coach Terry Edwards after a terrific Olympic Games in Beijing an unnecessarily brutal act.

His critics may allege he is "too autocratic" but he gets results.


Amateur Boxing Scotland chair Richard Thomas says: "While I have a lot of respect for Derek Mapp this has always been about boxing people taking ownership of the sport. The sport has to modernise but you must not leave behind the people who have been running it.

"He is a fantastic businessman and very charismatic but at the end of the day BABA and UK Sport are not the only stakeholders. There is another contribution, and that is by the thousands of boxers and officials who have been working for boxing long before Mapp was introduced to it.

"They have been overlooked. All the Home Nations want is a genuine engagement with the performance pathway."

But Mapp is firmly backed by Caborn, despite ABAE being one of the "anti" associations. Caborn walked out of a formal meeting of the associations last week when denied a vote and admits to me: "I am considering my position. If the future is decided as one of modernisation I am part of it. If it means going back to the past, I am not."

The proof of the pudding is in the punching. Mapp can point to a record gold medal haul at the London 2012 Games and, under his stewardship the state-of-the-art training and accommodation facilities in Sheffield are now the envy of world boxing.

Stakeholders UK Sport and Sport England, who between them have invested a total of £20 million ($31 million/€24 million) in amateur boxing and have concerns about its administration, are keeping a watching brief on the situation and may well intervene before the extraordinary general meeting.

What form this intervention may take remains to be seen.


UK Sport, in particular, has expressed concerned over the governance of the sport, placing boxing on its "red light" warning system in the form of a one-year probation, guaranteeing only the first year of funding because of the disinclination of the national associations to accept a number of changes recommended by a BABA subcommittee, of which UK Sport approves.

It has the power to impose sanctions including the withdrawal of funding or putting in place alternative solutions, which if Mapp is ousted could even see them installing an interim chair.

One obvious candidate would be the former British Olympic Association (BOA) chair Lord Colin Moynihan, a former Varsity Boxing Blue and steward of the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC).

Moreover, there is the still to be resolved question of the British Lionhearts' participation in AIBA's WSB, over which the home associations complain they were not properly consulted.