Ed’s smiling in heaven

For over 10 years, the late Ed Picson battled the big wigs of the International Boxing Association (IBA) in a fight to restore integrity in the amateur fight game. He was the lone Asian voice in rattling the saber and those who feared the backlash from IBA’s Russian president Umar Kremlev quietly stood at the sidelines.

Picson joined ABAP as secretary-general in 2009, later to become executive director and in 2021, president. He stood by the country’s amateur fighters through thin and thick, selflessly devoting himself to protect their rights in the face of prejudice, unfair judging and corruption. When IOC suspended IBA as its international federation affiliate in 2019, disgruntled member nations began to stoke the fires of cessation. Picson was in the middle of the “rebellion” that led to the formation of World Boxing in April 2023. Less than a week after World Boxing was organized, Picson passed away. But by then, his wife Karina, a well-respected IBA technical delegate, had joined the cause and was later named to the interim World Boxing executive board. The Philippines wasn’t a founding charter member of World Boxing as Picson diplomatically steered ABAP away from IBA’s wrath at the onset. But it was just a matter of time before the Philippines became World Boxing’s first Asian member and eventually, ABAP chairman Ricky Vargas was voted to the fledgling federation’s Executive Board.

From an initial membership of six countries, World Boxing has grown to 60, covering five continents and bringing together major forces throughout the globe in seeking IOC recognition to restore boxing in the 2028 LA Olympic calendar. IOC had supervised the sport in Tokyo and Paris but will no longer take an active role in 2028. IOC, however, left the door open for reinstatement on condition a new federation emerges to satisfy the requirements for recognition.

Recently appointed chair of an Olympic Commission by World Boxing to spearhead efforts in bringing back the sport in LA was former multiple world middleweight boxing champion Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin, known as Triple G. Golovkin, 42, was appointed Kazakhstan’s National Olympic Committee president last year and won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics. His pro record was 42-2-1 with 37 KOs. His only losses were to Canelo Alvarez twice on points.

“For me personally as well as for all the sports world, it is important to preserve boxing as an Olympic sport and this will be my top priority,” said Triple G. “I intend to work closely with IOC on issues of boxing’s commitment to the Olympic values of honesty, fairness and transparency. I am confident that my experience as a professional athlete will help build systemic work within World Boxing and through joint efforts, we will be able to give boxing a new impetus to its development but there is much to be done.” World Boxing president Boris van der Vorst has announced that the organization’s first World Championships will be held in Liverpool on Sept. 4-14. Picson must be smiling broadly up in heaven.