LAUSANNE.- The legendary Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao46, was named vice president of the International Boxing Association (IBA)an institution excluded from the Olympic world due to its numerous governance problems.
Appointed after an IBA meeting in Manila, Pacquiao “will work alongside the president,” Russian Umar Kremlev, “to develop athlete-focused programs, promote boxing in Asia and beyond, and to advocate for fairness and protection of boxers,” the organization announced.
“I will dedicate myself to building bridges – between amateurs and professionals, between east and west, between generations and between cultures,” the Filipino promised, quoted in the statement.
Before hanging up his gloves in 2021, “Pacman” became the only boxer in history to win a world title in eight different categories, extending his reign over four decades (1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020).
After entering politics in 2007, first as a deputy, then as a senator and then as a candidate in the 2022 presidential elections, in which he lost, he has defended conservative positions in the social field, marked by his conversion to evangelism, and liberal positions in the economic field.
The IBA, which for decades was the institution responsible for managing amateur boxing, was suspended in 2019 and permanently banned in 2023 by the IOCwhich entrusted the organization of the Olympic boxing tournaments to the newly created World Boxing.
During the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the IBA fueled controversy over the gender of two female boxers, the Algerian Imane Khelif and the Taiwanese Lin Yu-tingby revealing that he had excluded both fighters from his world championships a year earlier.
Moto3 rider is “stable, but still critical”
Swiss rider Noah Dettwiler, victim of a serious accident on Sunday during the Malaysian Moto3 Grand Prix, is in “a stable but still critical condition”, his team and his family announced on the social network X on Monday.
“Noah has undergone several surgical interventions in recent hours that have gone well,” the message indicates. “According to doctors, his condition is stable, but still critical.”
During the formation lap, the new Spanish world champion José Antonio Rueda, 19, collided violently with Dettwiler, 20, who was going slower on the track.
Conscious, the two pilots were taken by helicopter to the hospital, according to the first information given by the World Cup organizer, who indicated that Rueda was “conscious, with a possible fracture in one hand and several bruises.”
Dettwiler is competing in his second full season in Moto3 this year.
