IBO Moves into the Middle East

PRESS RELEASE LONDON AND UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 30th JULY 2013 Showtime Sports International is pleased to announce the creation of the International Boxing Organization Middle East, a boxing regulatory body headed by His Excellency Khaled Almansoori, who has been appointed president. The purpose of this new commission will be to help promote, regulate and organise boxing tournaments throughout the Middle East.

The first tournament will be organised for the autumn in the United Arab Emirates Gary Barber, the Managing Director of Showtime Sports International said: “I am delighted to have helped create the IBO Middle East and to be involved with both the IBO and His Excellency Khaled Almansoori. It is with great excitement that we take our first tentative footsteps into this exciting region and new era for the sport of boxing.”

Regarding his appointment as President of the IBO Middle East, his Excellency Khaled Almansoori said: "I am delighted and privileged to be appointed president of the IBO Middle East at such an exciting time of development of boxing in the Middle East. I hope I can play my part in taking boxing in this region to a higher and more professional level at the same time raising the profile of the region as a sporting area for all sports' His Excellency Khaled Almansoori and President IBO Middle East Professional boxing is still very much in its infancy in the Middle East but IBO President Ed Levine is excited to be at the forefront of developing the sport in this new region. “While we have been active in most jurisdictions around the world we have noted the lack of world class boxing events in the Middle East,” said Levine. “In the past we have been approached by different individuals and entities to enter this market but we have not seen fit to do so until we had the right individual or group now at last we feel confident, privileged and ready to be at the forefront of this new boxing frontier.