After a 4 month-long journey of pre-ranking matches with all 10 Inaugural Champions in place, the AIBA Pro Boxing is now poised to launch the rest of its schedule. The International Boxing Association (AIBA) announced today that the first matches will be held on May 29th.
In each weight category, 8 boxers will go through 2 rounds of preliminaries in order to produce the Challenger whom the Champion will face in his defense. Each Cycle of the APB lasts approximately five months and consists of two ranking rounds followed by one title match. There will be two APB Cycles every year, each with 10 weight categories.
Due to the high demand from potential host cities, AIBA has launched a bidding process to select the host cities of the 2015 Cycle I and Cycle II.
The majority of the 10 Inaugural Champions will have a chance to defend their titles at in their home countries except in a few weight categories. As the 2015 Cycle I forms part of the Olympic Qualification Process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, with two quota places given in each weight category, both the Champion and the Challenger in the coming Title Matches will automatically qualify for the Olympic Games. Therefore, Round 2 Matches of Cycle I will be the actual Olympic Qualifying Events.
These APB boxers will also be allowed to participate in any AOB Competition, which are related to the Olympic Qualifications. Additionally, they can also participate in multi-sports Continental Games such as, European Games, All African Games and Pan American Games
