Indonesian boxing bodies to be united

Indonesian boxing bodies to be united

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Amateur Boxing Association
(Pertina) and its professional equivalent, the Indonesian Boxing
Commission (KTI), have agreed to join forces under one superior
body to bar boxers from going professional without solid amateur
records.

"Pak Hendro as well as Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports
Hayono Isman have expressed their approval," Pertina chairman
Paul Toding told reporters yesterday. Hendropriyono is KTI's
chairman.

The idea of bringing together the two boxing bodies was
formulated to counter campaigns to ban boxing following the May
12 death of featherweight junior Akbar Maulana, the ninth
fatality in the country's boxing history.

Akbar fell unconscious after being knocked out by his
opponent, Bugiarso, in the 12th round of their title fight. He
died 10 hours after undergoing brain surgery.

Paul added that he will arrange a meeting with Hendropriyono
and Hayono to discuss the technical and administrative aspects of
materializing the new supervising body.

"The new organizational structure should ideally have a
special commission to evaluate the boxers' performance and, based
on the evaluation, decide which boxers really deserve
professional status," Paul said.

Emphasizing what Hayono said during a meeting with
Hendropriyono on Wednesday, Paul stressed that it was very
important for any boxer to only turn professional after gaining
extensive experience and maturity in the sport.

In-experience

Akbar's death might be attributable to the fact that he
stepped into the pro boxing ring without having amateur fighting
experience at all, Paul said. He implicitly suggested that the
main problem with professional boxing in Indonesia was that many
want to go straight to the professional ranks for the money.

"But they're getting it wrong," Paul said. Akbar was paid only
Rp 500,000 (US$224) for the deadly bout, and he still had to
share 30 percent of the money with his manager, while the rest
was also taxed. On the other hand, amateur boxers -- those who
have won medals at various championships either at home or
abroad -- are often awarded around Rp 1.5 million up to Rp 5
million as a token of appreciation.

Moreover, there are already regular championships for amateur
boxers while the frequency of bouts for professionals in
Indonesia is quite low. "So why become professional only to fight
for a relatively small sum of money one or two times a year?"
Paul said. (arf)