Army

Head of State of Azerbaijan, president of the National Olympic Committee Ilham Aliyev’s participation in the opening and final ceremonies once more showed that how important this championship is. In his welcoming speech at the opening ceremony, president of the Azerbaijan Boxing Federation Kemaleddin Heydarov emphasized that the head of state supports the development of sports, including the boxing. “Decisively continuing the progressive attitude of the nationwide leader to the sports, president of the National Olympic Committee, Head of State of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev takes purposeful measures towards the development of sports turning our country into one of the sports centers of the world.

….Due to the government’s support, construction of modern training installations for the boxers, organizing high-level international competitions and tournaments, victories of our boxers in the international arena are the signs of successful development of this sport in our country. On the behalf of all boxers we express gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev for his special attention to the development of boxing in Azerbaijan”.

According to Apasport.az Azerbaijan’s national team, which was represented only by two boxers in the last Olympic Games, has still won five licenses (one in WSB league) for the Olympic Games 2012 London. During the world championship, our national team achieved best results in its history.

Reviewing the period of development of boxing in Azerbaijan, we can divide it to two parts: Azerbaijan Boxing Federation (ABF), which has been member of AIBA and EABA since 1992, entered the phase of its development in 17 years. The process of ABF reorganization has been started since 2009 and it brought its positive results in very short period, two years later.

Change of generations finalizes successfully

Reviewing the results of our boxers in the last European and world championships, we can see the positive results of the process of change of generations. Azerbaijani national team won only medal in 2007 and two years later failed. Naturally, it was not without cause. The end of career of the national team’s leading boxers made the change of generations inevitable after the Olympic Games 2008 Beijing. Young boxers had to go long way to gain international experience. But they could pass this way rapidly. Azerbaijan didn’t attend the world championship 2008 in Guadalajara, but two years later, Azerbaijan became host country. Salman Alizadeh (49 kg) and Shaban Shahpalangov (51 kg) won gold, Elvin Isayev (57 kg) bronze medals. Currently these sportsmen are the leading members of our national team.

International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) and Azerbaijan Boxing Federation reached an agreement to hold the world championship in Baku. ABF president Kemaleddin Heydarov said: “The path of glory is in advance of the Azerbaijan Boxing Federation. For some reasons, there have not been good results recently. President of the National Olympic Committee Ilham Aliyev gave certain instruction for the development of the Boxing Federation. We believe that we will have great achievements soon. Azerbaijani boxing will develop further and our boxers will raise our flag in the Olympic Games”.

Following the world junior boxing championship last year, our country hosted the world adult championship. Azerbaijan became the second country in the CIS after Russia, hosting this championship. Our boxers have won 5 licenses, including WSB league, and they are able to increase the number of licenses. Our team will attend another tournament of license character in Istanbul. Even if our boxers don’t win this competition, they will be represented in London Summer Olympic Games 2012 by more sportsmen than in Beijing.

Baku world championship was an obvious proof for the successful end of the process of change of generations. Our boxers missed the medals two years ago, but now they reached best results in their history and opened new pages in the sports: Mahammadrasul Majidov (+91) became the world champion, but Teymur Mammadov (91 kg) was defeated in the final and won silver medal.

Their success to reach the final ended our 6-year longing for the championship. The happiness felt during the world championship in China in 2005 was repeated six years later. In that time, our two boxers – Ramal Amanov (60 kg) and Elchin Alizadeh (91 kg) reached the final. But they were disappointed with defeat in the final. Our national team couldn’t repeat this achievement during the two following championships.

One gold and one silver medal are the best results in our boxing history. If one gold and two bronze in similar competitions in 2003 have been considered as the best result so far, Mahammadrasul and Teymur hit this record.

Our national team was the third among 127 countries attended the championship in Baku and left Russia, the leading boxing country, behind.

Azerbaijan hosted the AIBA forum last year. Following this event, the international organization awarded best boxers according to the results of the year.

Achievement 18 years later

Azerbaijani national team achieved its best results in the European championship in Turkey this year.

18-year longing for the championship was ended. Salman Alizadeh (49 kg) won gold medal.

Azerbaijan has joined the European championships as an independent country since 1993, felt the happiness of championship in its first attempt. In that time, Rovshan Huseynov became the best boxer of the continent. He defeated German boxer Riko Kubat and returned home from Bursa, Turkey with gold medal. 18 years later our boxers won the champion’s title in Turkey again.

Our national team, as a representative of the independent country, participates in the international tournament for the tenth time. It won two gold and one bronze hitting new record. Its fist achievement came in 1993 in Bursa. In that time our team won one gold medal.

AIBA’s ranking list also showed that Azerbaijan has strong boxers. Salman Alizadeh (49 kg) left all his rivals behind with 1600 points. Teymur Mammadov (91 kg) is the third strongest boxer of the world with 912.5 points.

General manager of the Bulgarian national team Petr Losev was also surprised in a good sense with our best performance at the European championship. He said forces became equal in the continent. “A number of strong teams gathered in Ankara. Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Wales, Turkey and Ireland have excellent teams. Therefore all of them won medals”.

European Boxing Federation: Azerbaijani boxing is developing very rapidly


Former captain of our national team, bronze medalist of the Beijing Olympics Shahin Imanov also believes that our national team will achieve many successes in the future. “Our national team is younger than other teams. The boxers are at the ages of 18.19, 20. All conditions were created for them. These guys should get necessary results. We organized training for them in Italy. Our boxers are training together with several countries and they have a chance to improve their experiences”.

President of Turkish Boxing Federation Eyub Gozgeci said victory of the Azerbaijani boxers is a consolation to them. “Our boxers failed in the world championship. We are looking forward to win licenses in the Olympic qualification tournament in Turkey. We are “one nation, two states”. Azerbaijani boxers’ excellent performance is a consolation to us. We wish successes them in the future. Baku hosted the world championship. There was excellent organizing work. Before the world championship we had training session in Baku. We are in the same groups with Azerbaijan both among the amateurs and WSB league. We have close relationship. A large complex to be constructed in Baku will have great importance for us”.

President of the European Boxing Federation (EABA) Umberto Furgoni said he didn’t see analogue of the Azerbaijan-host world championship. “There is excellent organizing work. I think the Baku-host world championship was organized in higher level than previous. Azerbaijan has very strong team. Your national team always prepares seriously for the world tournaments. Every sportsman shows high-level performance in this championship too”.

EABA president didn’t rule out that the next European championship can be held in Azerbaijan and he said he was happy that such federation is a member of EABA led by him. “I visited Azerbaijan several times. In the future, we can entrust your country to organize the championship among seniors, because currently the boxing is rapidly developing in Azerbaijan. Your Boxing Federation will fulfill commitments to host the international tournament in the high level, if it takes it”.

Former captain of the Azerbaijani national team, bronze medalist of the world championship Ali Ismayilov said our boxers would become undesirable rivals soon. “The team is passing the period of change of generations. The team is young and has no enough experience and it will get many successes in the future. They proved it at the European championship. The conditions created for our sportsmen help them to move forward. Due to this attention and care about them our sportsmen should make our people happy with their achievements and they can do it because they are strong. They will be stronger in the Olympic Games 2016. Now they are very young and need time to gain experience”.

Technical representative of the world championship, AIBA official from Brazil Luis Bozelli said there were some small problems in the course of world championship, but the competition was organized in the high level. “Any country can face with the problems in the beginning of the tournament. The situation was very good in Baku. AIBA tournaments like the world championship are always organized in the high level. The world championship of license character in Baku also was so. We participated in several competitions organized in Baku before and always we were satisfied with the organizers”.

Improvement of material-technical facilities and cooperation with the foreign experts

The improvement of the material-technical facilities has an important role in the integration of the country’s boxing into the world’s sports. The administrative building of the Azerbaijan Boxing Federation is constructed in Baku. Two hectares of area was allocated for the new building. 500-seat sports complex, 200-room hotels, basin and parking area will be constructed there.

The building will be supplied with transformer substation, boiler-house, pumping station and water reservoir.

EABA president Umberto Furgoni said they were happy to attend the groundbreaking ceremony. He said the construction of Azerbaijan Boxing Federation’s building would contribute to the development of boxing in Europe. “It will be magnificent. The new boxing house, which was founded on the eve of world championship, will promote the development of boxing not only in Azerbaijan, but in Europe as well”.

The federation leadership is strengthening the material-technical basis and invited Russian coach Yevgeny Kotov to train our boxers. There is an opportunity to hold trainings abroad. The team was urged to won licenses in all categories.

“We understand the tasks and duties entrusted by the federation leadership. We are working to realize it and planning to win 10 licenses in all categories”, Kotov said.

A national women team is also formed in the country and other Russian expert Alexander Denisov has responsibility for this team. The female boxers achieved good results in many tournaments. Their wining the licenses will open new pages in the sports history of our country.

Azerbaijani team “Baku Fires” are also struggling among the AIBA’s newly-created professionals in the WSB league. Soltan Migtinov (75 kg) from this club won first license for our team. AIBA president Ching-Kuo Wu said the newly-established club had very successful debut. “It is important to speak about the “Baku Fires” club alongside with the world championship. This team showed excellent performance in the international arena and deserved this victory”.