The prestigious Tammer Tournament took place in the months of October and November in Finland in the previous decades but this year the organizers moved the event to January. It means that the competition will open the 2022 calendar on the European continent. The tournament will be held between January 21 and 23 and thirteen champions are expected to celebrate their gold medals after the finals.

The new 41^st Tammer Tournament will welcome top women and men elite boxers and will be a highlight of January. The venue of the traditional competition is the Pyynikki Sports Hall, the tournament will be held in two women and eleven men weight categories in Tampere.

History of the Tammer Tournament

The first edition of the Tammer Tournament was held in 1977 when 11 boxers won the historical titles including Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev, Canada’s John Raftery and Finland’s bests Antti Juntumaa, Juha Mykkaenen, Arto Kolehmainen and Pekka Ruokola. Among them, Juha Mykkaenen (54kg) and Pekka Ruokola (+81kg) were the first two-time champions following their second gold medals in 1978.

The USA team competed in the Tammer Tournament for the very first time in 1980 while the Soviet Union had its debut in 1982. The competition was widened for many countries after the first edition and several non-European nations as Algeria, Chinese Taipei, Venezuela, South Korea, Lebanon and Uganda also sent boxers to Tampere.

Since then several stars competed in the Tammer Tournament: Kazakhstan’s Serik Konakbayev, United States’ Oscar De La Hoya, Finland’s stars Joni Nyman and Jyri Kjall, Germany’s Sven Ottke, Hungary’s Olympic Games winner Istvan Kovacs, Russia’s Olympic Champion Aleksandr Lebziak, England’s Joseph Joyce, France’s Jerome Thomas and two-time IBA World Champion Sofiane Oumiha.

Tampere hosted the 1993 edition of the AIBA Men’s World Boxing Championships which was the only world event organized by a club and the outside temperature went down to less than 0 degrees. Bulgaria’s Serafim Todorov, Romania’s Francisco Vastag and Cuba’s Roberto Balado won gold medals in that world event in 1993.

The 1997 edition of the Tammer Tournament was a Qualification event for the Minsk 1998 European Men’s Boxing Championships and the biggest star of that tournament was Spain’s Rafael Lozano who works as head coach in their current national team.

The city of Tampere hosted European Men’s Boxing Championships in 2000. The next 2001 edition saw the success of Finland’s Askar Sarsenbayev (63.5kg) who works as a coach in the national team in our present days. The host nation’s top boxers in that period as Jani Turunen, Juha Ruokola, Jani Rauhala and Robert Helenius all won the titles of the Tammer Tournament.

England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland shined in the Tammer Tournament five years ago, most of the gold medals were achieved by these powerful nations in 2017. Apart from 10 men’s weight classes, the Tammer Tournament was held also in the lightweight (60kg) and welterweight (69kg) for women in a round-robin format. Finland’s leader Mira Potkonen defeated all of her rivals, while Monaco and Austria were also among the countries which claimed gold at the Tammer Tournament.

The Best Boxer Trophy was awarded to France’s IBA World Champion Sofiane Oumiha in the last edition of the 40^th Tammer Tournament in November 2019, while Finland’s Mira Potkonen, Germany’s Hamsat Shadalov, Brazil’s Keno Marley Machado and England’s William Cawley impressed the audience.

In total, 16 nations attended the last edition of the tournament in Tampere: Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Sweden, Ukraine and Wales. The Caribbean island, Saint Lucia participated in the event for the very first time.

Weight categories of the event in 2022

Women’s: 50kg, 57kg

Men’s: 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63.5kg, 67kg, 71kg, 75kg, 80kg, 86kg, 92kg and +92kg

Schedule of the event

January 21, 2022, 11:00 – Official Draw

January 21, 2022, 15:00 – Day 1 competition

January 22, 2022, 12:00 – Day 2 competition

January 23, 2022, 14:00 – Day 3 competition with the finals

January 24, 2022 – Departure of the delegations

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