The sport’s world governing body, AIBA, is planning to push through new proposals in order for full-time boxing stars to be given the chance to compete for Olympic gold as early as this summer.
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Wu stressed, however, that any boxer interested in competing at Rio 2016 would have to go through the AIBA’s Olympic qualifying tournament.
AIBA would not comment directly on the issue but Wu said in a statement: “2016 is a special year for AIBA as we celebrate our 70th anniversary”.
“We already have our own professionals, APB and WSB boxers, in the Games and we will go further”.
It is unlikely any change will be passed in time to affect the Rio Olympics, with proposals not due to be ratified until the next meeting of AIBA’s executive committee in July, after the qualification process is complete.
Boxing retirements are notoriously tenuous, and speculation about Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting again surfaced even before his farewell fight against Andre Berto last September.
Mayweather, a five-times world champion, was 19 when he lost a controversial Olympic semi-final in Atlanta in 1996 against Serafim Todorov when his hand was raised as the victor before the announcement that the Bulgarian had won. “The HeadsUp campaign has made important inroads and we look forward to acting on the valuable opinions we have heard over the past days here in Manchester”, said AIBA President Ching-Kuo Wu after addressing the 110 attendees. Since Wu became AIBA president in 2006, AIBA has dropped the word “amateur” from its name and banned fighters from wearing headguards in AIBA-sanctioned men’s events, still a subject of heavy medical debate.
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 worldwide 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”.
Since 2013, Olympics eligibility has been extended to professional boxers who have fought fewer than 15 paid bouts and were willing to sign a short-term contract with APB.
There is also the question of age limits – who for example would want an 18/19 years old “amateur” representing his country to come up against say Klitschko or Fury in the preliminaries of the Olympic Games.
“We have already received a very strong, positive response from our members, and everybody is excited and would like to see it”.
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It throws up a variety of fascinating and controversial possibilities, not least on the home front, with UK Sport having committed more than £13million into the current British boxing squad for Rio.
