By Marco Bratusch

At the beginning of June, the European Boxing Union held its anticipated General Assembly and Annual Convention meeting in Belgrade, Serbia. It was the customary occasion to fulfill multiple duties and several discussions have streamed as well among the members over technical, medical and regulations matters at Falkensteiner Hotel’s convention center. The representatives of almost 50 countries have attended the Assembly.

Arguably the most important event of the weekend was the election of the President and the 10 countries members of the Board, being the current year an elective year.

As expected, President Bob Logist’s mandate was confirmed and thus extended for another four-year span. That was the third election for the former Belgium referee and judge as the EBU’s head.

Regarding the Board, the countries which have the right of voting provided the following outcome:

United Kingdom 269
Belgium 246
Denmark 245
Suisse 245
Finland 238
France 218
Russia 199
Spain 193
Italy 180
Monaco 163
Germany 130 (out of the Board)
Netherland 72 (out of the Board)
Austria 69 (out of the Board)
Hungary 42 (out of the Board)
Ukraine 33 (out of the Board)
Luxemburg 7 (out of the Board)

In respect to the previous year and quite unexpectedly, Germany and Austria exited the Board for the next four-year span while Denmark and Monaco’s representatives will be taking their seats.

As an important and awaited appointment occurred during the Convention, the 2017 EBU Awards were finally unveiled:

Heavyweight Agit Kabayel defense against Dereck Chisora which was held last November in Monte Carlo was considered as the “Fight of the Year” winner.

Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing was “Promoter of the Year”.

And Swedish junior welterweight boxer Anthony Yigit was regarded as “Fighter of the Year”, or, according to the official definition, “Champion of the Year”, with a special recognition for having successfully defended his title thrice during 2017.