Amir calls for support to Super Boxing League

KARACHI: Hardly a couple of days after Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) denied NOC to British boxer Amir Khan for staging Super Boxing League (SBL) in Islamabad in early winter the former two-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist urged people to support his league during its formal launch here on Thursday.

“Amateur and professional boxing are different things,” Amir said.“The PBF’s job is to promote amateur boxing and take it into Olympics, while we are here to work for the development of professional boxing,” he added.

Amir said that amateur boxing was under the domain of AIBA while they were going to launch SBL under the banner of World Boxing Council (WBC) which was the strongest body in the world that promoted professional boxing.The PBF Executive Committee denied NOC to Amir for holding SBL On June 19.

After Amir’s briefing here on Thursday, the PBF said: “The resolution adopted in the executive committee meeting is mainly based upon the realm of Pakistan First as we have always undertaken to serve our motherland with pride, which will stand restricted, due to ineligibility, if our boxers and any official participate in the SBL Pakistan. “The league being organised under the banner of WBC shall have adverse effects upon national boxing which could have been mitigated if the league was organised through PBF under the AIBA statutes,” it added.

“The PBF shall be readily available to assist Amir in his all plans aimed for the promotion and development of boxing in Pakistan once in line with the statutes and rules of AIBA and Constitution of PBF,” the PBF said.

Amir said that Pakistan had great talent. “Our aim is to channelise the energy through a proper way,” he said.Also present were the SBL CEO and founder Bill Dosanjh, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, co-owner of Pakhtoon Warriors, renowned musician Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, co-owner of Faisalabad Falcons and owner of Sialkot Shers Jehangir Riaz.

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram owns Multan Nawabs. Karachi Cobras, Quetta Gladiators, Lahore Rams and Islamabad Kings are the other franchises of SBL to be held from September 28 to November 3.