Happy New Year!

Dear boxing fans,

Following on from the successes of 2009, the coming year will be nothing less than revolutionary for the sport of boxing. But before the packed 2010 boxing schedule gets under way, the AIBA Executive Committee will meet in Xiamen, China at the end of this month to review the activities of 2009 and plan ahead for this historic year.

There are five major international events on the 2010 calendar, promising top-quality boxing action throughout the year. The season kicks off with the World Youth Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, in April. This will be the only qualifying event for the first-ever Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Singapore in August.

After the welcome decision to include women's boxing in the Olympic Games from London 2012, the ladies will take centre stage in Bridgetown, Barbados in September for the 6th AIBA Women World Championships.

The focus of international amateur boxing will return to Asia for the remaining months of the year, starting with the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India in October. At the same time, the World University Boxing Championships will be held in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia.

November will undoubtedly be the busiest month in the AIBA calendar, with the the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China concluding the international amateur boxing calendar, the start of the World Series of Boxing and the AIBA World Congress.

The World Series of Boxing is an AIBA initiative that has involved a tremendous amount of preparation over several years to build up a world-class tournament. For the first time, professional-style boxing bouts will pitch city-based teams of the world's best boxers head-to-head on a regular basis for four months of the year. This revolutionary new tournament will generate a motivation for boxing fans to follow their team each season. It also offers boxers the opportunity to compete in an AIBA-sanctioned professional-style tournament and still remain eligible to participate in the Olympic Games.

I will be supporting the promotion of the World Series of Boxing actively this year and would like to thank the boxers, national boxing associations and our franchise partners for their support and commitment in the preparation of this ground-breaking tournament.

As the World Series of Boxing gets under way, my first term in office as AIBA President will draw to a close at the 2010 AIBA Congress in Busan, Korea. I look back with pride on AIBA's many achievements over the past four years and hope that, with your support, I will be able to continue driving the sport of boxing forward in the years to come.

Yours boxing,

Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu, AIBA President