Roy Jones Jr. To Headline

Star-Studded Opening Ceremony

At IBA Men’s World Championships In Dubai!

(November 18th) A host of the biggest names in boxing and entertainment have been confirmed for the glamorous Opening Ceremony ahead of the IBA 2025 Men’s World Boxing Championships, hosted at the iconic Dubai Tennis Stadium from December 2nd.

Among the star-studded line-up, which features prominent figures from across the sporting landscape, features a one-of-a-kind performance by legendary four-weight world champion, Roy Jones Jr, with the boxing icon set to deliver a performance created especially to commemorate the historic championships.

Also featured as part of the evening’s entertainment is a special performance by Italian vocal sensation Benedetta Caretta, whose unique voice and presence will take the audience to another level.

With further announcements expected in the coming weeks, the IBA’s inaugural ‘Festival of Boxing’ between December 2-13 is poised to create a lifetime of memories across the world of sports, culture and entertainment.

The 2025 Men’s World Boxing Championships will see the world’s top international talent, from more than 95 National Federations, descend on the glitzy city of Dubai in a bid to claim a portion of the historic $8.32m prize-pool.

With IBA President Umar Kremlev, host of the two-week extravaganza, doubling down on his intent to breathe life into every level of boxing, the 2025 Men’s World Boxing Championships will be the richest in the sport’s history.

Tickets for the grand Opening Ceremony of the tournament are available now via www.platinumlist.net.

Furthermore, the penultimate day of the ‘Festival of Boxing’ will see Russian star Murat Gassiev challenge Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev for the WBA World Heavyweight Championship – further underlining the IBA’s commitment to investing from the grassroots of amateur boxing to the richest prize in the professional code.

The International Boxing Association (IBA) is a worldwide sports organization that sanctions amateur and professional boxing matches and awards world championships. Previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), the organization was founded in 1946 as the successor to the Fédération Internationale de Boxe Amateur (FIBA), which had been established in 1920. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the IBA organizes world and subordinate championships and governs boxing through its member federations. Under its current president, Umar Kremlev, the organization has introduced prize money for its World Boxing Championships.

However, the IBA has become the center of significant controversy, particularly regarding its relationship with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In June 2023, the IOC formally withdrew its recognition of the IBA, making it the first international federation to ever be expelled from the Olympic movement. The IOC cited persistent concerns over the IBA's governance, lack of financial transparency—including its reliance on Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy company, as a primary sponsor for a period—and integrity issues related to refereeing and judging standards. The IOC had already suspended the IBA in 2019, meaning the organization had no involvement in organizing the boxing tournaments for the Tokyo 2020 or Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which the IOC organized itself instead.

Boxing's status for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics was initially withheld as leverage against the IBA. The IOC has made it clear that Olympic boxing needs to be governed by a credible, well-governed international federation, and that national federations adhering to the IBA will prevent their boxers from participating in LA 2028. In response to this crisis, a new international federation called World Boxing was established by numerous national boxing federations, including those from the United States and Great Britain, with the explicit aim of securing boxing's place in future Olympics. The IBA has condemned World Boxing and threatened its members with exclusion. In summary, while the IBA remains an active governing body for many boxing events, its status as the official governing body for Olympic boxing has been terminated by the IOC due to serious governance and financial concerns.