While the history books will tell a familiar story of Cuba exerting their dominance - claiming four gold medals to top the standings - the 18th edition of AIBA’s showpiece event has been different in so many ways to those that have gone before it.

Held in the Middle East for the first-time ever, it was somewhat of a gamble to stage the World Championships in a part of the world short on boxing tradition.

And although it became more and more apparent over the course of the 10-day event that it will take years, maybe even decades, before the sport really catches fire on these shores, there’s no doubting that the seamless execution and excellent promotion of the competition has laid a strong foundation on which the region can build.

Described by AIBA President C K Wu as the "best ever" edition in the 41-year history of the World Championships, it’s testament to the standard of the competition and the level of organisation in the venue where it was staged, the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena.

Speaking to Wu within the confines of the state-of-the-art sports complex ahead of the first night of finals on Wednesday (October 14), I was left under no illusions as to what it was all primarily in aid of.

"From the very beginning, when we decided to come [to the Middle East], the most important thing was that we must leave a legacy and help boxing to grow in the region," he said.

Helping to ensure this legacy were the star-studded boxers invited to the World Championships as special guests, namely Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao, as well as Great Britain’s two-time former world champion Amir Khan, and unbeknown to me at the time of sitting down with Wu, the Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitaly, who presented the light heavyweight medals after the second evening of finals. 

With regard to this, questions have frequently been asked over the past couple of weeks as to whether a precedent has been set that will be difficult to emulate at future World Championships.

But Wu isn’t concerning himself with that at this moment in time. He intends to cross that bridge when he comes to it.

"These big names certainly help the promotion of the sport of boxing," he told me.

"If they come, they immediately draw attention not only here but worldwide.

"This is the first time that they were invited to come to the AIBA World Championships.

"Their appearance here obviously had a tremendous impact and these promotions are what we need to get more people to pay attention to boxing."

It’s been claimed that AIBA fighters are now better prepared than ever-before to make the step up to the peak of the professional ranks. Khan stated as much last week, going as far to say that he thinks AIBA’s fighters have it a lot tougher than their professional counterparts, given that they don't have the luxury of picking and choosing their opponents.

From the moment he took up the Presidential hot seat in 2006, Wu was looking to professionalise AIBA with one of his most significant acts being the removal of the word "Amateur" from the world governing body’s title.

In the nine years that have ensued, he has overseen the establishment of the World Series of Boxing and AIBA Pro Boxing, allowing fighters to compete professionally while maintaining their Olympic eligibility.

That’s not to mention the AIBA Open Boxing, the main competition under the world governing body's banner, as Wu reminded me.

The 68-year-old Taiwanese national isn’t stopping there either. Having told insidethegames' chief columnist David Owen earlier this month that he is considering undertaking a fourth term at the head of AIBA, he could hold his position for a further seven years yet. 

With the exception of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, boxing has featured on every programme since the 1904 edition in St Louis. And while there is absolutely no reason at all why that is likely to change any time soon as one of the International Olympic Committee's 25 core sports, Wu is keen to guard against complacency and wants to see progression.

"We have to look ahead to the future and I think the vision is very important; a high level of competition and maybe bringing more outstanding boxers [to AIBA events]," he said.

"This will be a process, but I think inviting two of them to come [Pacquiao and Khan], is the first step towards people knowing AIBA welcomes the very outstanding boxers from the professional side.

"Gradually we’ll build up some exchange programmes, but this is the beginning - opening the door - and eventually I think the level of boxing will grow with the popularity increasing more and more.

"Young people from our grassroots love boxing, but everywhere I go, not only do boxers practice boxing - football [players] practice boxing.

"In any other sport now, they all go to the boxing clubs to train themselves, so you can see the popularity growing.

"We’re going to have this fitness boxing, which applies to 'Boxing For All'.

"Children, the young, the middle-aged, and the old-aged, they’re all using boxing to keep up their fitness so that will be our programme; to really make everybody love boxing."

So does Wu feel as though he can get boxing to where he wants it to be before the end of his existing term in 2018, or is that extra four years going to be needed? I put that very question to him.

"I think I can do a lot of work in three years and see a lot of progress," he said.

"But the most important thing is that my service lays a solid foundation for the sport of boxing.

"In the future, it doesn’t matter who is going to be the leader.

"We have a very good, clear direction based on that."

If there is to be a change of leadership in 2018, the next edition of the World Championships in Hamburg a year earlier will be Wu’s last as AIBA President.

Hamburg was awarded the hosting rights to the 2017 event on Tuesday (October 13) at AIBA’s Executive Committee meeting, fending off competition from two unnamed rival bidders to follow in the footsteps of fellow German cities Munich and Berlin, which staged the World Championships in 1982 and 1995 respectively.

"Germany is a traditional strong boxing country and they have many boxing fans," said Wu.

"The city of Hamburg is really the city of boxing.

"It’s very, very strong and popular in the city so they’ve always wanted to have the opportunity to host a World Championships.

"They presented their bid and you can see from different aspects - the venue, culture, competition, hotels, transportation, airport - that everything is in very, very good condition, and this is exactly what we need."

Even in two years’ time, the legacy of the 2015 World Championships is still unlikely to be clear in its entirety.

We could be looking as far ahead as 2025 before the potential benefits begin to pay dividends for Qatar and the Middle East as a whole.

It’s definitely not something that will happen overnight. This year’s World Championships were about inspiring a generation and it will take time for that to come to fruition, if indeed it does at all.

The medal conversion rate of Middle Eastern countries at future World Championships will ultimately tell its own story and if the region can manage to take advantage of the opportunities hosting the 2015 edition has presented it with, there’s no reason why that shouldn't improve.

Perhaps one day a Middle Eastern boxer will be invited to the World Championships as a special guest.

We shall see...