Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The American Samoa Boxing Association (ASBA) president has expressed his full support of IBA (International Boxing Association), the world-governing body of the sport in its bitter feud with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has dramatically manifested in Paris Olympics women’s boxing competition.

According to ASBA President Paepaetele Mapu Jamias, the feud between the two international sports organizations stems from the 2016 Rio Olympics where allegations of judges fixing fights during the Games in Brazil were confirmed by an independent investigation.

He said that IBA had suspended all the officials involved and launched its own investigation. The IBA is also investigating claims against some of its members of alleged financial mismanagement.

This was after the IOC threatened to strip IBA's status as a governing body if it did not implement recommended reforms.

Meanwhile, as an interim measure, the IOC took over the running of the boxing competition at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, as it has also done this year in Paris.

However, far from improving its governance, the IBA further angered the IOC when it re-elected Umar Kremlev as president without contest in 2022.

Kremlev, a Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin, has been a vocal critic of the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach.

Consequently, the IOC voted in June 2023 to withdraw recognition of the IBA as the world-governing body for international and professional boxing.

The IBA responded in a statement calling the decision a "tremendous error" which revealed the IOC's true politicized nature.

It stated that despite the challenges, it remains committed to the development of boxing, the preservation of its independence, and the organizing of official tournaments and World Boxing Championships at the highest level.

"We possess the legal right to do so, and we are prepared to defend it before any appropriate authority," the IBA declared.

And while the IOC has taken over the running of the boxing competition since the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the IBA has continued to run world championship tournaments like last year's Women's World Championships in New Delhi, India, where the two boxers at the center of the ongoing controversy were disqualified for failing gender tests.

In an interview with ASBA President Paepaetele, he stated that the real issue here is that the IOC does not prioritize the safety of biological women who are boxing with individuals whose gender is in question.

He said the safety issue was vividly brought to the attention of the whole world when Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoned her bout against Algeria's Imane Khelif in just 46 seconds, after being hit in the face with a heavy first punch which also dislodged her chinstrap.

“My face and nose were hurting,” a still-tearful Carini told international media. “I couldn’t breathe anymore. I thought about my family, I looked at my brother in the stands and I went to my corner to retire. … I’ve never been hit with such a powerful punch.”

Carini didn’t shake Khelif’s hand after the referee formally raised it. Instead, she sank to her knees in the ring after the announcement and cried.

It was that clearly unfair bout that called attention to the safety issue and what biological women were having to go through when men are allowed to compete with them, said Jamias.

He argued that Khelif and the other boxer Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan failed IBA gender tests carried out in 2022 in Istanbul and 2023 in New Delhi, and the IOC was informed about this way before the Paris Olympics, but they never did anything about it because their number one goal is inclusion.

"The IOC doesn't care about women's safety or fairness," said the ASBA president. "The IOC responded by trying to undermine the credibility of what it called the 'arbitrary' tests, saying that the rules for boxing in Paris are the same as the ones used in Rio and Tokyo, where the sex listed on an athlete's passport is the key criteria!"

IOC President Bach clarified their stance on the matter during a press conference held on August 2, 2024 where he is reported by international media covering the Paris Olympics as saying;

“Let's be very clear here. We are talking about women's boxing and we have two boxers who were born as women, who have been raised as women, who have passports as women and who have competed for many years as women. And this is a clear definition of a woman.

"There was never any doubt about them being women. What we see now is that some want to own the definition of who is a woman. And there I can only invite them to come up with a scientific based, new definition of who is a woman.

"And how can somebody being born, raised, competed and having a passport as a woman cannot be considered a woman.

“To quote the Italian boxer who was competing against the Algerian female boxer, she said, 'These controversies have definitely made me sad and I feel sorry for my opponent who is also only here to fight. I have nothing against Khelif. If I met her again I would hug her.'

"I think this explains it all and this is what the Olympic spirit is about. The respect for your opponent whether you win or whether you lose."

However, laboratory tests confirmed that they were born with XY chromosomes (which only males have) but they suffer from Disorders of Sexual Development (DSD), which occurs when babies are born with incompletely developed external genitals or with external genitals which do not match their internal organs.

"With the exception of people in Algeria and Taiwan, and the trans community who would have been cheering for the Algerian boxer, all the other people around the world who saw that bout myself included, were outraged," Jamias said referring to the bout between Khelif and Italian boxer Angela Carini.

"I mean you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know just by one look, that the Algerian boxer has a male's physique, with wide muscular shoulders, bulging biceps and a flat chest with slim cowboy hips!

"And even if by some ridiculously remote chance that Khelif is in fact a woman (even after confirmation of XY chromosomes), she should still not be allowed to beat up biological women. The logical thing for the IOC to do is to create a "other category" for boxers with DSD like Khelif and Yu-ting to compete in.

"And then allow trans boxers or male boxers who identify as women to join, and then Khelif will have an idea of what Carini experienced during the 46 seconds they fought," Jamias said.

In the end however, Khelif went on to defeat Yang Liu of China in the final of the women's welterweight division to win gold, while Yu-ting won gold in the women's featherweight division by defeating Julia Szeremeta of Poland.

The ASBA president expressed his disappointment with the IOC for endangering the lives of biological women boxers by allowing this fiasco to continue and pointed out that boxing was the most dangerous of all the contact sports in the Olympics.

His sentiments were echoed by Gabriele Martelli, president of the IBA Coaches Committee, who noted that the “unfair advantage” that Khelif and Yu-ting possess is particularly damaging in combat sports.

“If we lose because of an unfair advantage, we might be hurt emotionally, physically, because an advantage was used to take a medal from us,” he said. “But in our sport, it is different, it is dangerous because when there is an unfair advantage, someone can die.”

Carini's reaction of despair when she dropped to her knees inside the ring and cried unashamedly, affected IBA President Umar Kremlev immensely.

"I couldn’t look at her tears," an emotional Kremlev shared. "I am not indifferent to such situations, and I can assure that we will protect each boxer. I do not understand why they kill women’s boxing. Only eligible athletes should compete in the ring for the sake of safety."

The IBA president went a step further and declared that Carini will be compensated for the chance to compete for a medal that was taken away from her by someone the association had banned from competing in women's competition.

Kremlev was referring to the bold decision made by the IBA leadership in May to award all Olympic champions and medallists of Paris 2024 allotted prize money.

The unprecedented move in the history of the sport is aimed at supporting the athletes, coaches, and National Federations, as well as underpinning IBA’s commitment to delivering the best support for its athletes, based on their hard work and dedication to the sport of boxing.

This means that all Paris gold medallists in the boxing tournament will receive a substantial financial reward of $100,000. Out of this amount, the athlete will receive $50,000, their National Federation will receive $25,000, and their coach will receive $25,000.

For a silver medal, $50,000 prize money will be awarded, with the athlete receiving $25,000, and the remaining $25,000 being distributed evenly between the coach and the National Federation.

For a bronze medal, we will provide $25,000, of which $12,500 will go to the athlete, and $12,500 will again be distributed evenly.

Additionally, athletes who lost in the quarterfinals and finished 5th, will each receive $10,000 from IBA, making the total prize money fund commitment equaling more than $3.1 million USD distributed to over 100 boxers.

President Kremlev stated on the association's website that IBA will award Angela Carini, who abandoned the fight against Algeria’s Imane Khelif at Paris 2024 Games after 46 seconds of the first round, the IBA prize money as if she were an Olympic champion.

He also said that the IBA will support Sitora Turdibekova of Uzbekistan who unanimously lost to Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan, who was also deemed ineligible by the IBA back in 2023.

"That's a clear indication of an association that truly prioritizes the well-being and fair treatment of its members," Jamias acknowledged. "Compare that to the IOC which prioritizes inclusion and care only that boxers with DSD and trans boxers feel welcome. They don't care about the safety of biological women who will have to fight them in the ring."

According to Jamias, ASBA was already an IBA member when he joined the local boxing association in 1999. He became president in 2002 and was a member of the IBA Executive Committee for 12 years.

He revealed that a trans male boxer or a female boxer who identifies as a male had competed in Paris. Jamias was referring to Filipino boxer Hergie Bacyadan, who was the only out-trans competitor in the Paris Olympics.

Ironically, Bacyadan is competing in the women's competition because he has not undergone hormone replacement therapy (HRT) – the process of taking hormones (testosterone) that better suit a person’s gender identity – or undergone gender-affirmation surgeries.

"I will never take testosterone but consider myself a trans man because my heart says so,” the middleweight wrote in a post on Instagram.

ASBA President Paepaetele scoffed at Bacyadan's decision to compete in the women's division even though "he" identifies as a man.

"Of course 'he'll' want to compete in the women's competition because he'll get beaten up by the real men in the men's competition!" he pointed out.