Mr. Ali Reza Kalantari – We are planning to raise the popularity of boxing to the level of wrestling in Iran

The AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships is finished in the Hungarian capital in Budapest where seven of our Asian boxers claimed gold medal. Iran qualified seven male boxers to the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships and among them two of their athletes advanced to the quarter-finals which is a top result for the country.
We have asked The General Secretary of the Iranian Boxing Federation Mr. Ali Reza Kalantari in Budapest about their success, performances, Iran’s boxing developments, and their future plans in our sport.
“The venue of the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships was excellent and we are satisfied about all aspects in Budapest. Iran is planning to return to the sport with top results and we are focusing more actively to the international stage than previously.
Iran has got great and long term strategies in the sport and we all know we need a few years to accomplish our goals. We need such support from the boxing experts and from the international organizations to do our best in the future.
We are planning to raise the popularity of boxing to the level of wrestling in Iran which is our best sport in the Olympic history. We all know it won’t be easy but we are looking forward for this great job.
We have got 30,000 boxers through the country in all of our regions and our target is to double them in the upcoming years. We think that we will have realistic chance to select the best boxers among 60,000 athletes. Besides to the quantity we will be focusing also to the quality as well therefore we are looking for also foreign coaches.
We are planning to host an international competition next March in the city of Chabahar which is located off the coast of the Indian Ocean. The name of the event will be the Makkoran Boxing Tournament. That event in our beautiful area could be the start to host international events in Iran.
The international cooperation with AIBA, ASBC, boxing experts and other federations are the key parts of our strategy,” said Mr. Ali Reza Kalantari after the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships.

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