Boxing star Ibunu to drive junior talent to international glory

Former Royal College and Sri Lanka boxing star Abdullah Ibunu is ready to play an integral role in developing junior boxing in the country.

“My aim is to focus on developing the Sri Lanka junior national pool and provide them more international exposure,” said Ibunu, an accomplished coach at school and national level.

He was of the opinion that the vast reservoir of talent available in the nursery should be harnessed. “Our boxing is not up to international standards at the moment. We should nurture talent from junior level and form a senior national pool by picking the best boxers from the three Forces and Police,” he pointed out.

“We can go on a long journey in the future if we can focus on the junior national pool to feed the senior squad,” said Ibunu who represented Sri Lanka at the World Junior Boxing Championships in South Korea in 2004.

One of the outstanding boxing products of Royal College, Ibunu is a four-time Stubbs winner and bronze medallist at the Layton Cup and South Asian Games trials in 2006. He turned his attention to coaching, being head coach of Royal College since 2010 and guiding them to a Stubbs Shield triumph after 30 years in 2017.

He was thrust into the national leadership role when he was appointed Secretary of the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) by Dian Gomes in 2019. “Boxing is continuing to flourish without sponsorship thanks to BASL president Dian Gomes. We can learn a lot from him. Our goal is to develop boxing in the country,” said Ibunu, 37, one of the youngest officials in boxing administration but wiser by the experience of serving under Gomes.

“All of us are doing an honorary service. Our aim is to give the utmost for boxing. Like other associations, BASL also faced many obstacles but 99 percent of the issues have been cleaned up with 34 new referees and judges being selected,” said Ibunu who lauded the contributions made by vice presidents Wasantha Kumara and Hemantha Weerasinghe.

“Boxing is one sport where no one can point a finger at the selection committee headed by Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya. We don’t send boxers on trips but select one or two on merit. Our plan is to develop Sri Lanka boxing to win an Olympic medal,” asserted Ibunu, a 2-star AIBA (International Boxing Association) qualified coach.