By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Ricky Vargas has been named as one of the members of the interim Executive Board of the recently-formed Asian Boxing, an organization affiliated with World Boxing that is moving heaven and earth to retain the sport in the Olympics.
Apart from Vargas, chairman of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, other Board members are interim president Pichai Chunhavajira of Thailand, Jung Aehyun of Korea, Ali Takleef Shaheed of Iraq, Tatsuya Nakama of Japan, Darkhan Kyzaibayev of Kazakhstan, Tilanoev Shohid of Uzbekistan, Balanmunkh Maidar of Mongolia, and Ajay Singh of India.
World Boxing now has 60 members that include recent approval of memberships of Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Myanmar and Palestine.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) supervised the last two editions of the Olympics in Tokyo and Paris after the International Boxing Association (IBA) was discredited.
The IOC has removed boxing from the Olympic calendar starting in 2028 but is leaving the door open for reinstatement.
It can be recalled that boxing has been a constant source of medals for Team Philippines, accounting for 10 of the 18 total medals won since the country joined the Olympics in 1924.
