BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!

Pro boxers to compete in Olympic games starting with Rio.

more to follow.......

Professional boxers to be eligible for Rio Olympics
http://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/12183/10179852/professional-boxers-to-be-eligible-for-rio-olympics

Professional boxers are set to become eligible to compete in the Rio Olympics, the president of world governing body AIBA has said.

Radical new proposals being pushed through AIBA could theoretically see the likes of Anthony Joshua defend the heavyweight title he won at the London Games in 2012.

There has been no indication whether he is likely to be keen on that or whether any other high-profile fighters are hoping to commit to the event in Brazil.

AIBA president, Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, has indicated the last remaining barriers preventing full-time professionals from competing in the Olympics are to be abolished within a matter of months.

He said: "We want the best boxers to come to the Olympic Games. It is AIBA's 70th birthday and we want something to change - not after four years, but now.

"It is an IOC policy to have the best athletes in the Games and of the international federations, AIBA is probably the only one without professional athletes in the Olympics.

"We already have our own professionals, APB and WSB boxers, in the Games - [and] we will go further."

Asked whether the change could realistically be made in time to affect eligibility for Rio, Wu added: "According to our statutes it is absolutely possible."

Wu was speaking during an AIBA Commissions meeting in Manchester on Wednesday, at which a change in the existing eligibility criteria is top of the agenda.

Proposals from the meeting must subsequently be ratified by AIBA's executive commission.

Despite the qualifying process for Rio already being underway, the intention is clearly to change the rules in time to give individual national federations the chance to select whoever they want in time to join the remainder of the procedure.

In reality, for the majority of nations it will be a more gradual process and the likelihood of Joshua taking part is low.

Neither GB Boxing nor the Irish Boxing Association would pick established professionals over promising athletes they have nurtured through fully-funded programmes over the last four years.

There would, however, be nothing to stop them enquiring about the availability of a past or present professional to fight at a weight where they do not feel they have current medal or qualification potential.

Prospective issues over existing commitments and contracts - the British Boxing Board of Control would require boxers to relinquish professional licences before launching any prospective Olympic bid - would be left up to each individual national federation to overcome.

AIBA say they have been working on broadening their eligibility criteria for Rio for some time.

They were given implicit encouragement to fast-track the process by the publication of the IOC's Agenda 2020 document in 2014, whose Recommendation 9 declares the intention of "ensuring participation by the best athletes".

Reform of AIBA's eligibility criteria has been top of Wu's agenda since he was elected president of the organisation in 2006.

Under Wu, AIBA has dropped the word amateur from its official title, removed vests and headguards from AIBA-sanctioned men's events and instigated 'professional' competitions such as APB and the increasingly successful, team-based World Series of Boxing.

Under new rules introduced in 2013, professional boxers became able to go to the Olympics provided they had had less than 15 paid bouts and signed a short-term contract committing themselves to AIBA's professional arm, APB.

These restrictions are now set to be abolished in a move which will effectively end any differences between the traditional definitions of professional and amateur boxing codes.

Wu added: "I think any international federation must start to think about what the future of the sport will be and if we know what we would like to happen then we must propel our vision.

"After 70 years, it is up to AIBA to set up a good foundation which will last for many decades.

"When I took over the presidency in 2006 I made it very clear the term of amateur is not really relevant because when you look now at all the Olympic sports, who is really amateur?

"I think the process is very clear and we plan to consider it very thoroughly. We have already received a very strong, positive response from our members, and everybody is excited and would like to see it."

With Tennis..Basketball etc the Olympics is becoming a joke.........Golf too I believe as of the next one??

The Olympics should be the pinnacle of your career not something you don't mind winning after a Major...

Becoming bollox..

I couldn't imagine for example, Floyd when he was earning millions on PPV dedicating himself for a few weeks to fighting for an Olympic gold medal when he wouldn't get paid for it.

Also, what weight would some of these fighters be fighting at? There would be no time for big rehydration and they would have to stay close to or at fighting weight for 2 to 3 weeks. So there's no way Canelo could compete unless he wanted to fight at light heavy.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:With Tennis..Basketball etc the Olympics is becoming a joke.........Golf too I believe as of the next one??

The Olympics should be the pinnacle of your career not something you don't mind winning after a Major...

Becoming bollox..

I read somewhere that the NFL was trying to get into the Olympics. Who else would win the gold medal apart from the USA?

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:With Tennis..Basketball etc the Olympics is becoming a joke.........Golf too I believe as of the next one??

The Olympics should be the pinnacle of your career not something you don't mind winning after a Major...

Becoming bollox..

7

Agreed 100%

Olympic boxing should be the pinnacle of a fightER wether he decides to turn pro or not.

Sounds like a ploy to make more money by getting more ratings

I think this sad news for the sport both amateur and pro. I have not like the blurring of the boundaries between amateur and pro, and I like this even less.

Amateurs represent their nation through winning selection tournaments. Pro's don't enter these so how would they secure a spot.

I can't see many established 12 round champions wanting to go up against the top amateurs over the shorter distance.

I don't see how it's possible for Rio. Do they just quash the qualification system?

Its only been proposed so far, has to go to the commission for approval and Wu tends to get his own way.

The proposal is a bad idea but to push it through for Rio is crazy, some of those fighters have been training for 4 years towards it and now they could be prevented because pros can come in and take their place?

If a pro were to enter and lose would it class as a loss on their professional record?

Pedro147 wrote:If a pro were to enter and lose would it class as a loss on their professional record?

Would be like a glorified Prizefighter tournament, its a ridiculous idea. However as always it will be about making money which has sport in general fu(ked.

Cheers, Rodders

Sport never used to be about making money in the good old days..

Veteran trainer Roach keen as Manny Pacquiao mulls Olympic bid
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/veteran-trainer-roach-keen-manny-pacquiao-mulls-olympic-014415296--oly.html
By Rob Woollard

Veteran trainer Freddie Roach has vowed to back Manny Pacquiao if the boxer decides to take advantage of rule changes which could see professional fighters allowed to take part in this summer's Olympics.

Pacquiao said Wednesday he is yet to decide on whether he will pursue a spot in the Philippines Olympic team, appearing to pull back from an earlier statement to AFP in which he said he would be honoured to fight in Rio.

"I'm not saying a yes or a no," Pacquiao told reporters. "I'm not closing the door. I have to think about it and I'm still thinking about it. It's good to let professionals in the Olympics."

The eight-time world champion said earlier this month he had been "personally invited" to Rio by Wu Ching-Kuo, president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) -- the governing body for amateur boxing.

Proposed changes to AIBA statutes, set to be put to a vote at a special congress of AIBA confederations at the end of May, could leave Olympic eligibility in the hands of the national boxing federations.

Pacquiao, who is preparing for what is being billed as his farewell fight against Timothy Bradley in Las Vegas on April 9, is planning to transition into Philippines politics when he hangs up his gloves.

However the prospect of becoming his nation's first ever Olympic gold medallist is likely to be a powerful lure for the 37-year-old.

The Philippines has won a total of nine bronze and silver medals at the Olympics since the 1928 games in Amsterdam, five of them in boxing.

Roach told AFP on Wednesday he had discussed the prospect of fighting in Rio with Pacquiao -- and revealed he had even offered to work for free.

"If they let him in the Olympics I told him I'd train him," Roach said. "He said 'You know there's no pay for that right?' I said 'No problem!'.

"If Manny wants to go to the Olympics and get his country a gold medal I'd be behind that. Pro athletes compete in other sports at the Olympics, so why not?

"I don't agree with it but that's the way life is."

Roach meanwhile dismissed concerns that allowing professionals to fight against untested amateurs could be risky.

"What's dangerous about it? A three-round fight or a 12-round fight? It's still boxing. People talk about the difference between pros and amateurs. But good pros come from the amateurs," Roach said.

However Roach's view was not shared by Pacquiao's veteran promoter Bob Arum, who branded the AIBA's proposals as "insane".

"I think the idea of professional boxers in the Olympics the way it's been proposed is insane," Arum, 84, told AFP.

"You can't have top professional fighters competing in the Olympics against raw amateurs. To mix them up is wrong.

"People say 'Well in other sports we allow professionals to compete in the Olympics.' But boxing is not other sports. It's a hurt sport. It's dangerous.

"To put an unheralded kid from Nigeria in the ring with a Manny Pacquiao? You should be sentenced to jail for doing something like that.

"I don't think the AIBA has thought this through. And to do it at the last minute like this is terrible. The Olympics are a few months away. I don't know what they're thinking."

Manny should be nowhere near the Olympics

Its not fair, imagine if you put a prospect in with a world champion, apart from Loma, they would probably get creamed.

Its a stupid idea

Absurd & hilarious.

Worst idea since Abraham Lincoln said "Lets take in a show at Forde's Theatre"

DAVE667 wrote:

shenglong2015 wrote:Worst idea since Mrs Shenglong said "I want a baby"

Worse than when your boyfriend said the same thing to you?