What we used to know as amateur boxing is in a state of turmoil. Just days after the uneasy truce between UK Sport and Britain's amateur bodies, the sport has been hit by another major controversy, with British star Andrew Selby likely to be ruled out of next year's Commonwealth Games after signing a contract with the International Boxing Association (AIBA) to become part of its revolutionary AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) tournament.

It is a move that will dismay the Commonwealth Games Council for Wales (CGCW), as he was the outstanding Welsh hope for a gold medal in any sport.

The 24-year-old from Barry is ranked world number one after making history in Minsk this month by becoming the first British boxer to successfully defend a European title.

While the APB contract, which provides substantial prize money, allows Selby to compete at all major AIBA tournaments, including the Rio 2016 Olympics, there is no provision for his release for Glasgow 2014.


Should other British stars, including England's Olympic super-heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, decide to take the same route next year it could denude the Games of Britain's best boxing talent, a situation that seriously concerns the Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson. He tells insidethegames: "I am not at all happy with this. It important that the strongest possible British teams are represented in the Commonwealth Games, which, like the Olympics, are of vital importance to the nation as a whole. I shall be watching the situation closely."

The APB tournament – created by AIBA's ultra-ambitious President C K Wu, and which makes its debut with a series of exhibition bouts beginning in Rio on August 14 – controversially allows fighters to box professionally while retaining their Olympic eligibility.

UK Sport, which, last week withdrew its threat to divert funding for the Olympic boxing programme pending a promised reconstitution of the sport's fractured governing bodies, say: "It is for the sport and the athlete to decide the best route for them to success at the Olympic Games in 2016, which is what our funding is provided for."

However, many – including the Sports Minister – will argue that participation in an event as significant as the Commonwealth Games is surely part of the World Class Performance Programme, which financially supports Selby and other elite boxers.

Wu declares: "Rio 2016 will be the first Olympic Games in history allowing pro boxers to compete, and their qualification pathway to do so will be through competing in our revolutionary APB programme, which is fully aligned with the principles of the Olympic Movement."


However, I do not believe the evolution of APB is playing as well with the IOC as Wu would have us believe.

There are serious concerns across the lake in Lausanne about the conflict it is causing, and the detrimental effect it might have on developing nations whose boxers could miss out on Olympic qualification because of the emphasis placed on progression to the Games through the elitist APB.

This week the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) issued a statement supporting the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the European Boxing Union (EBU) in protesting against the proposal of AIBA to admit professional boxing into the Olympic Games "to the possible detriment of amateur boxing worldwide".

They are joined in this by the North American Boxing Federation (NABF), which warns that there are inherent safety issues and that "fatalities might occur if a non-experienced boxer is fighting against a professional".

A valid point?

On top of this, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and AIBA face a threat of legal action from the WBC President José Sulaimán.

In all, hardly a situation that is likely to enhance Wu's prospects of succeeding Jacques Rogge as IOC President in September.

No, Britain should not be pandering to the whim of Wu.


One boxer who isn't is Britain's Olympic bantamweight gold medallist Luke Campbell. He has opted to take the orthodox professional route, joining the mushrooming Matchroom stable run by Eddie Hearn – prodigal son the ubiquitous Barry, making his paid debut at lightweight in hometown Hull on July 13.

"APB was never an option for me," he says. "It was never a passion of mine to get involved with it. My goal was always to be an Olympic champion and when I achieved that, I thought 'what's next for me?' I was doing Dancing on Ice when it came about. I used this time to evaluate my options and decided to take the proper pro route.

"The problem with APB is that no-one in this country really knows about it. Boxing fans appreciate the real professional game, the one which can make you a global superstar and that's what I want to be."

"I want to be a world champion, not boxing in some back street venue in a foreign country with no-one knowing who you who you are or who you are fighting."

The personable Campbell was chatting to us in Stratford this week during a break from promoting StreetGames, a nationwide programme that engages thousands of youngsters in disadvantaged areas in what is termed "doorstep sport". This can include traditional or adapted versions of games such as cardio tennis, instant ping-pong, rush hockey and street dance, and has just received a £3 million ($5 million/€4 million) lottery windfall from Sport England.

Campbell, newly awarded an MBE, is happy to be an ambassador for the project, for, as he says, it was sport which saved him from a life of aggression and possibly crime. "I wasn't a nice person to be around as a youngster. It was only a matter of time before I got myself into trouble with the police. I was on a slippery slope.

"But at 13 I joined a boxing gym and I found it was a way to channel my aggression into something positive. Sport gives us the boundaries in life and the discipline to go on."

A tall, slick southpaw, Campbell received a number of professional offers after winning Britain's first European gold in nearly half a century and obviously several more after the Olympics. Such is his resolve that, as well as visiting and sparring with seasoned pros in the famously spit-and-sawdust atmosphere of Gleason's Gym in New York recently, before the Olympics he had also paid his own way to visit Freddie Roach's Wild Card gym in Los Angeles where he stayed for a week picking up tips from the stars who train there.

"I just wanted to learn something different, to pick out things that other boxers did. It was a great experience. I knew Amir [Khan] then worked with Freddie and that gave me the idea of going there. Me and a friend from my boxing gym just turned up and I said, 'I'm Luke Campbell from Britain, can I stay and watch?' Freddie was great; he said 'yes of course you can.' He didn't charge us anything and usually you have to pay quite a lot just to get in. In all it cost around £800 ($1,250/€935) but it was all worth it.


Campbell, 25, has stayed in contact with his British former teammates Anthony Ogogo and Tom Stalker ("my two best pals") who have made successful pro debuts. He is also in touch with fellow gold medallist Joshua, but like everyone else has no idea what the big man is going to do with his boxing life. "I get the impression he still hasn't made up his mind."

It is no secret that Joshua, who hasn't boxed since the Olympics and has had a foot operation, is being wooed by Wu as well as the world's leading pro promoters.

But he faces a dilemma. Should he join Selby at APB, and get beaten either there or even before that in October's World Championships in Kazakhstan, he can knock a coupled of noughts off his market value.

In the current climate, with all the uncertainty after Derek Mapp was jocked off the chairmanship of the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA), Britain has done well to retain over half the 2012 line-up as the first anniversary of their ring triumphs approaches, six of the ten-strong squad still under the Sheffield stewardship of Rob McCracken.

And Nicola Adams, whose ever-smiling features have done so much to enhance women's sport after becoming the first-ever female Olympic boxing gold medallist, has also resisted offers to join the women's pro circuit and is set to defend her European Union title in Hungary next month.


Allied to the trio of medals (one gold and two bronze) in the men's Euro Championships, it is a happy indication that the boxers are unfazed by the unseemly political punch-ups that have embarrassed the sport at administrative level.

It is also good to record that Keith Walters, long-serving chair of the Amateur Boxing Association of England, until elevated to the Presidency, swapping seats with ex-Sports Minister Richard Caborn, has been awarded a richly deserved MBE after such sterling dedication to the grassroots of the sport.

The focus is now on who succeeds Mapp as head of BABA.

Lord Colin Moynihan has ruled himself out but some other interesting names come to mind, among them, Sir Clive Woodward and ex-RAF middleweight boxing champ and BBBofC steward Lord Tom Pendry, like Moynihan an Oxford Blue.

Personally, I'd like to see another former Sports Minister, Kate Hoey, a great boxing fan, throw her hat into the ring. She'd sort out the blazers – and Wu too.

Meantime, "Cool Hand" Campbell tells us he is still looking for a trainer to help launch his pro career in Hull, where Jayne Torvill, who coached him to the final of Dancing on Ice, will be at ringside.

If things get slippery again he can always call her up into the corner.

Alan Hubbard is a 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 Game, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.