Starting Sunday, Istanbul will host the 12th edition of IBA Women's World Boxing Championship, a prestigious event the city last hosted more than two decades ago. Between May 8 and May 20, top athletes will fight it out for top title at a sports hall in city's Başakşehir district.
Some 412 boxers from 92 countries will compete in the tournament, the largest turnout for such a boxing event hosted by the country. Turkey hopes to raise its profile in boxing and Istanbul will also host a presidential election of the International Boxing Association, as well as its board meeting on May 13-14. Buse Naz Çakıroğlu and Busenaz Sürmeneli, the most famous female boxers of Turkey who shared top honors in international tournaments, along with their similar names, will join their foreign counterparts at the tournament.
Among those joining the competition are 19 defending world champions. Highlights are Beatriz Ferreira, Huang Hsiao Wen, Nesthy Petecio and Busenaz Sürmeneli. Ferreira boasts a lightweight title last month at AMBC American Boxing Championships while Huang Hsiao Wen, winner of the bronze medal in Tokyo 2020 Olympics, aims for the bantamweight title in Istanbul.
National women's boxing teams of several countries, including Cape Verde, Chile, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Kosovo, Kuwait, Macau, Pakistan, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, Tonga and Sudan are expected to make their international debuts in the Istanbul tournament.
Though it has been a long time since Turkey hosted the top women's boxing event in the southern province of Antalya, it is no stranger to major international boxing tournaments, including the AIBA Women's Youth and Junior World Boxing Championships back in 2011, as well as the Bosporus International Boxing Tournament in March 2021.
The Turkish team is counting on home crowd support and past accomplishments in the tournament. Along with Sürmeneli and Çakıroğlu, Esra Yıldız, Büşra Işıldar, Elif Güneri and Şennur Demir round up the Turkish team.
