A meeting took place between Khalaf Al Habtoor - the Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group, and executives from the International Boxing Association and the Asian Boxing Federation on March 2, 2011, in Dubai, to discuss the possibility of establishing an Al Habtoor Boxing series.
The competition, which would be the first of its kind in the UAE, would be based on similar boxing events that have been established in parts of the western world and have proven extremely popular. The meeting, which took place at the Al Habtoor Head office, was attended by Gofur-Arslonbek RAKHIMOV - the Vice President of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and the President of the Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC). Dr Ching-Kuo WU - the President of AIBA and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also present, as was Ho KIM - the Executive Director of AIBA and the CEO of the World Series of Boxing (WSB). It was arranged by the Director of Sports and Events for the Al Habtoor Group, Hany El Khafief.