India Women To Skip Season's First World Boxing Cup, Men's Squad Clings to Slim Hopes- Special Report

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Turmoil within the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) will have a significant impact on national teams competing at upcoming international competitions.

India's elite women's team will miss out on the season's first international starting March 31 in Brazil, while the men's squad has an outside chance of testing their ability at the World Cup in South America.

"I've no clue about competing at the World Cup in Brazil," one of the gold medallists of the senior national championship held earlier in January in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh told Mykhel. "I'm training on my own as there is no national camp in preparation for the Brazil competition."

All gold medal winners in their respective weight categories will be entitled to compete at the World Cup. It is learnt that the entry of the elite Indian men's boxing team has been sent by numbers to the World Boxing organiser, but not the women's.

The delayed women's national championship scheduled to be held in February was postponed as BFI was sorting out its internal dispute, which resulted in Indian Olympic Association (IOA) setting up a five-member Ad-hoc panel for day-to-day functioning of the BFI.

However, BFI approached Delhi's High Court and the court on Monday stayed IOA's order to set up an ad-hoc panel to run the affairs of boxing in the country.

Since BFI key officials were busy off the field, sorting out internal wrangling and election procedure of the new office bearers, preparatory camp wasn't announced for the men's group.

Indian boxing contingent performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games was disappointing. After winning a bronze medal through Lovlina Borgohain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held in 2021 in Japan, the Indian team returned empty handed from France.

"The elections of BFI and domestic calendar are two separate issues," one of the international female boxers said. "We have been training hard to showcase our potential at the national championships and cement our position in the national squad. But due to the uncertainty of the national meet, the training schedule has been upset." The BFI elections will take place on March 28 in Delhi.

The World Cup, set to take place in Brazil from March 31 to April 5, will mark the first international competition for elite men and women under the banner of World Boxing, the new global governing body established in April 2023.

World Boxing got the provisional Executive Board of International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognition earlier in February 2025.

The 2025 calendar of World Boxing has four World Cups spread over from March to November. While June 10 to 15 World Boxing Challenge is scheduled to be held in the Czech Republic, the World Boxing Championships will be held from September 4 to 14 in England. The Asian Boxing calendar in age groups will commence in April.