Three months of "APB Boxer of the Week": the competition through the eyes of our athletes

Three months ago, AIBA Pro boxing (APB) started to unveil its athletes' roster through the "APB Boxer of the Week" social media campaign. Since then, boxing fans have had a chance to discover APB's future stars and to ask them questions through the APB Facebook page (facebook.com/APB.Boxing) and Twitter account (@APB_Boxing)

Yunusov: One of APB's top boxers

Since the campaign's launch on May 13th, APB has introduced 14 of its boxers and proven itself to be a really international competition with fighters registered from all across the globe, including countries such as Germany, Italy, Korea, Brazil, France, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Philippines, Mexico and Wales.

The APB campaign provides the boxing community with a close-up look at the project from the boxers' perspective. Highlighting the power of social media, APB has taken a new approach to conducting official interviews during this campaign by allowing boxing fans to take the lead in asking questions themselves. Every APB boxer's "week" in the spotlight is wrapped up with a fan-generated interview. After the first three months of the campaign, the APB competition format has been clearly defined by the boxers in their interviews, with each athlete having his own reason to join the competition.

"I know that AIBA plays fair and square and trust is so important. That is why APB is an excellent choice for boxers who want to turn pro without taking any risks", explained two-time Olympian Anvar Yunusov from Tajikistan.

For London 2012 Olympic silver medallist and World Series of Boxing (WSB) poster-boy Clemente Russo, APB appeared to be "an excellent solution". I find that it provides benefits in three areas: you retain your Olympic eligibility, you get economic security and you can still live your pro boxing dream!" said Russo.

The explosive Mexican Juan "Pivi" Romero, the WSB Season II Lightweight Individual Champion sees APB as an opportunity as well: "I decided to join APB for the chance to continue developing. To be a better boxer, you need to be fighting constantly, unfortunately in Mexico we don't have many opportunities to do that, plus this is a perfect launch-pad for my efforts to qualify for the next Olympic Games."

World and Olympic Silver medallist and reigning Asian Games Champion Jonghun Shin from Korea was one of the first boxers to be unveiled in the campaign. "I am very excited about the APB programme. It is new and challenging, which is something I have been longing for", said the number one ranked Light Flyweight (49kg).

One of the best Bantamweights (56kg) in the world, Elias Emigdio, also provided his reasons to turn pro with APB: "Like many other boxers, I have always been tempted to become a professional boxer one day. But had I done it before, I would not be able to pursue my dream of winning an Olympic medal for my country anymore. While joining APB I can achieve both goals, as I can turn pro whilst retaining my Olympic eligibility. Moreover, this competition will bring me more international exposure and I will fight other high quality boxers."

The interviews conducted with the APB boxers also demonstrated that they all appreciate using the WSB as a transition scheme for AIBA boxers to turn pro gradually. "What I know for sure is that all my background within the WSB will serve me a lot once I step into the APB ring", admitted Michel Tavares, who before signing for APB has had fought for the Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder and Paris United Franchises.

This format of interaction between fans and boxers has proven to be more than successful, since although still only nascent, the APB Facebook page has almost tripled its followers since the campaign was launched.

This week boxing fans have a chance to get to know another APB boxer better, this time, the young and explosive Yamil Peralta from Argentina is under the spotlight. He is well-known to WSB followers as one of the strongest fighters in the Argentina Condors team. This London 2012 Olympian and 2011 Pan American Games bronze medallist is looking forward to testing his skills within the ranks of APB. He will be answering all his fans questions on the APB Facebook page in the now traditional APB Friday interview published on the AIBA website. Questions can still be asked until tomorrow on facebook.com/APB.Boxing.

With more than 100 boxers to unveil, the AIBA Pro boxing Social media campaign promises a lot of further surprises and emotional confessions from the world's leading boxers

For more information contact:

AIBA PR & Communications Department

+41 21 621 80 02

communication@aiba.org

As a service to our readers, Around the Rings will provide verbatim texts of selected press releases issued by Olympic-related organizations, federations, businesses and sponsors.

These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.

20 Years at #1: