2017 IBF Silk Road Champions Tournament Come to End Successfully

MACAU, March 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With the end of 2017 IBF Silk Road Champions Tournament Finals and 2017 IBF China Professional Boxing Championship Fights in Macau from February 28 to March 2nd, IBF 2017 Competition Season has drawn to a full stop. The games themed as "2018 Belt & Road Chinese New Year Sports Carnival" not only brought the city a special experience of the New Year celebration but also injected a fresh new power to Chinese professional sports.

The First Global Professional Boxing Tournament has Completed Its First Round

In the two-day competition, 16 fighters from China, Russia, South Korea, Thailand and Philippines fought for 8 IBF B&R Gold Belts, which symbolize the highest honor of the IBF B&R Region. Before that, they stood out during 4 events held separately in Macau and Xuzhou. The accomplishment of the 2017 IBF Silk Road Champions Tournament means the first global professional boxing tournament has completed its first round and its first generation champions will show up.

IBF Silk Road Champions Tournaments is an initiative by IBF in the context of the world actively advocating China's Belt and Road Initiative. The Tournament is produced by Rejoy Group and held jointly by IBF and People.com.cn. The Chief partner of the games is Wynn Palace Cotai, and the strategic partner is The Venetian Macao. Meanwhile, the cooperative partners - The Suncity Group and Laotebahe Beer - provide sponsor support for the games, and UniGame provides blockchain sports lottery service for the games.

At the 2017 IBF Silk Road Championship Tournament Fight Wynn Palace Celebrity Event, which was held on Feb. 28th, 4 IBF B&R Golden Belts were first fought for. Two of them were awarded to Chinese fighters, while the other two were gained by Russian fighters in Wynn Palace.

Sun Xiangxiang (China) defeated Sitthidet Banti (Thailand) and won the IBF B&R Lightweight Gold Belt with the score of 100:90, 100:90, 100:90. Chen Sen (China) overcame Alan Baga-An Alberca (Philippines) and won the IBF B&R Junior Featherweight Gold Belt with the score of 100:90, 97:93, 98:92.

Madiyar Zhanuzak (Russia) and Olga Gurova (Russia) won the IBF B&R Flyweight Gold Belt and IBF B&R Female Bantamweight Gold Belt, respectively.

In the 2017 IBF Silk Road Championship Tournament Fight & IBF Asia Championship held in the Venetian Macao, CotaiArena, another 4 IBF B&R Gold Belts and 1 IBF Asia Gold Belt were fought for. In the tournament, Chinese fighters Zhao Jun and Xie Lili won the IBF B&R Bantamweight Gold Belt and IBF B&R Female Lightweight Gold Belt, while Russian fighters Alexander Kotov and Ruslan Khamikoev won the IBF B&R Welterweight Gold Belt and IBF B&R Middleweight Gold Belt.

Meanwhile, Hu Die (China) won the IBF Female Asia Featherweight Gold Belt at the event.

The winners of the IBF B&R Gold Belts will get the qualification to challenge the IBF World Champions.

China's Third Professional Sports Tournament Come Out

During the "2018 Belt & Road Chinese New Year Sports Carnival," the 2017 IBF China Professional Boxing Tournament also catered its ending fights in Macau. Six 90's fighters fought for their first IBF China Gold Belt for the first time in the event. The fighters were from Beijing, Xi'an and Xuzhou tournament regions after promotion events.

In the end, Gao Shuxin, Mu Xiaolu and Zhan Zefeng won the IBF China Middleweight Gold Belt, IBF China Junior Featherweight Gold Belt and IBF China Lightweight Gold Belt respectively. All the winners of IBF China Gold Belts got the qualification to challenge for IBF B&R Gold Belts in 2018 IBF Silk Road Tournament.

The end of the 2017 IBF China Professional Boxing Championship Fights marked the birth of China's third professional tournament. Before the end of February 2018, IBF had held more than 70 tournaments (about 377 bouts) in Beijing, Xi'an, Xuzhou, Macau, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jinan and Tangshan. There were 754 fighters who participated in the IBF tournaments in China, among them 285 were new fighters. With the complete event system, high-level games and adequate volume of events, IBF quickly established its leading role in China.

China's Boxing Gear is Accelerating towards the World

Besides the 12 Gold Belts awarded at the event, news about building a world-level boxing gear research and development center also came out at the event.

On March 1st, IBF reached a strategic cooperation with Rejoy Group and Wulong Sports. The 3 groups will co-build IBF World Research Laboratory on Boxing Gear.

Rejoy Group is the sole operating agency of IBF's relative events and promotion in China. Since 2015, Rejoy Group has operated nearly 100 IBF sports events in China. While Wulong Sports is China's leading boxing gear manufacturer which possesses raw material purchasing, advanced product designing and processing technology, high-quality equipment and workshops. Wulong has established long and firm cooperation relationships in the last years.

On the occasion, Andrew Lu, senior VP of Rejoy Group said, "The three sides will establish world top and leading edge standards of boxing gear production and promote the standards as world popular ones."

Yu Dianhong, the president of Wulong Sports, said: "With the strong support of IBF's global brand and professional event system, Wulong will exert its unique advantages to develop IBF's top boxing gear through three sides of cooperation and enhance Chinese boxing gear as the mainstream products in the world boxing market."

Cross-Border Cooperation Ensures IBF's Game High-End, Fashionable and Entertaining

The 2017 IBF Silk Road Championship Tournament Finals Wynn Palace Celebrity Event held on Feb. 28th were a bold breakthrough and fashion interpretation of top boxing matches. The matches combined boxing, theme hotel, Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration elements and a fashionable dinner. It presented the audience with a very special combination of boxing, New Year Celebration and gentlemen culture.

All the guests who attended the event were well-dressed. While tasting the wine and delicious food, they enjoyed the exciting games in the Grand Theatre of Wynn Palace Cotai. The new form of games made the New Year celebration, gentleman spirit and fighting spirit well united. What's more, the new trial was helpful to change people's prejudice of boxing and better showed the spirit of this sport.

It's worth mentioning that during the games, IBF reached global strategic cooperation with UniGame, a world leading sports game developer. UniGame gained IBF's exclusive authorization to develop an IBF blockchain sports lottery service. IBF will utilize this game platform to make online boxing games more open, just and equitable.

Sean, the CEO of UniGame, said, "Through the cooperation with world fame brand IBF, UniGame's sports games will accelerate its step to go into countries and areas along the Belt and Road area in the near future, and the users along the area will experience more fair and interesting entertainment through watching IBF's excellent games.

About IBF

IBF (International Boxing Federation), founded in the United States in 1983, is one of the world's top four boxing organizations. The organization has cultivated a group of boxing super stars including Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Wladimir Klitschko, Bernard Hopkins, etc. With a significant development in China and Asia, IBF has become the leading boxing organization in the region.

IBF China is the exclusive representative of IBF in the Greater China region with all IBF's rights including membership management, registration, sanction, ratings, licensing and promotion. IBF China is the sole legitimate official channel to accept the application of promoting IBF bouts in the country.

IBF initiated China Professional Boxing Tournament in 2015, held the IBF Annual Convention and IBF World Championship bout for the first time ever in Beijing in 2016, and organized CCTV New Year Celebration Cup -- IBF World Championship in Macau in 2017, which historically created new records of both audience rating and influence. In the same year, IBF established IBF B&R and launched the IBF Silk Road Champions Tournament.

About IBF B&R

IBF B&R, short for IBF Belt & Road Region, was founded in August 2017. It is a regional boxing organization under IBF, one of the world's top four boxing organizations. The IBF B&R is made up of approximately 70 countries spanning from Asia, through Africa and the Middle East, to the Baltics and Europe. Its headquarters is in China.

As the first world sport organization that actively responds to and takes part in the "Belt and Road" Initiate (namely, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road) advocated by Chinese Government, IBF B&R aims to improve the popularity and promotion of boxing in the countries within the "Belt and Road" area. It will provide a better platform for boxers in the area to further their profession and provide a new chance to propel the development of boxing in the area. Of course, it will also present more wonderful boxing matches for audiences in the area.

The belt is especially designed for the winners of IBF Silk Road Champions. The main color of the IBF B&R Golden Belt is white, which stands for the holy and purity of the spirit of both the Silk Road and boxing.

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