Guayaquil is ready to welcome Olympic medallists and world champions from 30 different countries to fight for gold in one of America's biggest boxing tournaments. 

The medallists in each of the 13 men's and 12 women's weight categories will receive winnings of $10,000 (£7,610/€9,064) for the first place, $5,000 (£3,803/€4,532) for the second and $2,500 (£1,901/€2,265) for the third.

"It's a really good initiative because you can remain in the amateur ranks and still make a living," said Steve Ninvalle, vice-president of the AMBC.

"So, you stand a chance of making a tidy sum if you are up in winnings or if you continue to win.

"This is an initiative of Umar Kremlev, the President of the IBA [International Boxing Association] and it’s something that has been applauded and embraced across the world, because injection of cash gives boxers something to work towards, other than the pride and the glory, there’s now the financial aspect of it which means a lot."

The IBA and AMBC made a joint site visit to Guayaquil back in December last year to assess the work of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) prior to the event. 

"I saw a lot of enthusiasm from all the Government authorities and the LOC," said AMBC President Jose Laureano.

"Guayaquil has a great advantage for the event: hotels, hospital, competition stage and the airport are within a seven-minute radius.

"I am very confident that this event will be the beginning of American boxing in a big way."

The Championships are set to run until April 1 in Guayaquil, with competition being held at the Coliseo Voltaire Paladines Polo complex.

Preliminary round fights are scheduled from tomorrow until Monday (March 28), and are set to be followed by the semi-finals on March 30, with finals set for March 31 and April 1.