Union hopes tournaments encourage corporate support

By HUXLEY LOVAI
The PNG Amateur Boxing Union hopes events like the recent Kokoda Challenge will encourage corporate support to promote the sport whilst exposing the country’s top fighters to international competitions.
PNGABA president John Avira told The National that future editions of the competition would be structured to cater for the public and corporate sponsors.
Avira said they were looking at 10-bout programmes to keep spectators interested.
“In the future, we would like to structure it so that it is explosive and exciting for our commercial partners which are the sponsors,” Avira said.
“Like all sports these days, including T20 in cricket and rugby 7s, the sport needs to be marketable to our supporters and sponsors.
“So in order to attract them, we need to tailor the sport so that it makes more commercial sense in terms of supporting.”
In the long run, the PNGABU hopes to establish a national competition for boxing.
“Just like the Digicel Cup and the National Soccer League which involve franchise teams from the different provincial associations,” Avira said.
“They do that in IBA, our international federation.
“They call it world series boxing.
“We can adopt the same format here in PNG.
“During the Kokoda Challenge our fighters gave the spectators and sponsors a taste of what to expect from them.
“We just have to market the concept to promote the sport and develop our boxers, but that’s a long-term plan.”