JOIN US“Four other corporate houses, whose names cannot be revealed, were bidding for the rights but Videocon came up with the best bid both quantitatively and qualitatively,” said Ravi Krishnan, the South Asia Managing Director of IMG, WSB’s marketing partner..
“We are excited and enthusiastic about our association with WSB. Through this partnership, we would want the Indian audience and boxers to experience change by taking Indian boxing to the level of global standards,” Videocon Industries president Pradeep Dhoot said.
“Our commitment to boxing is long term and we will invest in promoting the sport by developing facilities like boxing rings across India at grass root level through schools and colleges,” he assured.
WSB is an inter-continental event modelled on the lines of professional boxing, where boxers would fight in five rounds of three minutes each without vests and headguards. It will have four franchisees each from Asia, America and Europe.
“It is our pleasure to welcome India as one of the 12 franchisees for the WSB. The confirmation of Videocon as one of the franchisee holders illustrates the tremendous potential for boxing in India and the huge support base for growing great talent,” said AIBA president Ching-Kuo Wu.
Each franchisee in the WSB will have a team of at least 10 boxers, including a maximum of three foreign imports. The franchisees will also have a pool of reserve boxers.
Each team will compete against its regional rivals four times –- twice at home and twice away -– making for a total of 12 matches per side. The top team from each of the three regions, along with a fourth (second best finisher) will face each other in a play-off format to determine the World champion side.
Indian Boxing Federation general secretary P K Muralidharan Raja said WSB coming to India was a major step towards making the sport more popular in the country.