The IOC have already left the sport off the programme for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and are now warning that they may also remove it from Paris 2024.

They have been pushed to breaking point by the announcement earlier this month that IBA had renewed a multi-million-dollar contract with Russia’s state energy supplier Gazprom and a threat from Kremlev that they would not give permission for its fighters and officials to take part in events they were not involved in.  

It followed IBA in September staging its second Extraordinary Congress of the year where it prevented Boris van der Vorst standing against Kremlev in an election, despite a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing that ruled the Dutchman should be allowed to stand.  

That was followed by the decision a few days later to lift a ban on boxers from Russia and Belarus competing under their own flags in direct contravention of an IOC-ruling.  

"The recent IBA Congress has shown once more that IBA has no real interest in the sport of boxing and the boxers, but is only interested in its own power," the IOC said in a statement published tonight.

"The decisions and discussions to keep boxers away from the Olympic qualifiers and the Olympic Games cannot be understood differently.

"It has also become clear again, that IBA wants to distract from its own grave governance issues by pointing to the past, which has been addressed by the IOC already in 2019.

"There is no will to understand the real issues, the contrary: the extension of the sponsorship contract with Gazprom as the sole main sponsor of IBA reinforces the concerns, which the IOC has expressed since 2019 over and over again.

"This announcement confirms that IBA will continue to depend on a company which is largely controlled by the Russian Government.

"The concerns also include the recent handling of the CAS decision which did not lead a new Presidential election, but only a vote not to hold an election.

"The IOC will have to take all this into consideration when it takes further decisions, which may - after these latest developments - have to include the cancellation of boxing for the Olympic Games Paris 2024."

Currently, an IOC Boxing Task Force, which oversaw the sport at Tokyo 2020, is due to be in charge at Paris 2024.

At the Global Boxing Forum in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago, Kremlev claimed IBA had done everything the IOC had asked of them and warned them they would no longer accept any interference.

"Don't dictate things to us, don't tell us how to live," he told delegates when talking about the IOC.

Boxing has been part of the Olympic programme since St Louis 1904, with the exception of Stockholm 1912 as the sport was banned in Sweden at the time.

It has produced some of the Olympics' most iconic moments and gold medallists have included Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Oscar De La Hoya.

insidethegames has contacted IBA for a comment.