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)