- LAUSANNE, Switzerland: Amateur boxing’s governing body says “insinuations” that a new seeding system at the World Championships favors Azerbaijan is nothing more than a “cheap shot.”
All nine Azerbaijani boxers were given a top-eight seeding for the upcoming event in their home country, shortly after the BBC reported that Azerbaijan allegedly paid $9 million to the World Series of Boxing — a subsidiary of AIBA — to ensure it wins gold medals at the 2012 Olympics.
Fighters at all weights except heavyweight and super-heavyweight divisions are guaranteed Olympic places by reaching the quarterfinals at the worlds in Baku.
AIBA said the new seeding system was not “introduced for any improper purpose” but was meant to encourage smaller countries to host the worlds.
It rejected what it called “insinuations contained in recent media reports,” but did not specify where.