Boxing opens up Games to the pros
But with two months to Rio, there’s little chance of the sport’s big names competing
The door is now open for professional boxers to step into the Olympic ring in Rio. Olympic boxing was the last holdout in maintaining a hard line between professionals who compete for cash and amateurs who compete for love and country until the international governing body voted to erase that line Wednesday.
“This is a momentous occasion . . . and represents another great leap forward in the evolution of boxing,” said Ching-Kuo Wu, the president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
There has been an ever-increasing assemblage of highly paid professional athletes from the sports of hockey, basketball, tennis and golf who have been welcomed into the Olympic fold but professional boxers are the most flamboyant and polarizing of groups.
But, at this point, it’s still very much an open question on how many professional boxers — accustomed to a paycheque and a far different fight format — will even be interested in the Olympics.
And, of those, how many will be in shape and available to fight in the final Rio qualification tournament just one month from now?
Wu has already achieved one of his goals: getting people to talk about Olympic boxing again.
Wednesday’s vote in a special meeting in Switzerland was the latest step in his master plan to move Olympic boxing, in form and rules, closer to professional boxing and boost its profile and popularity.
The AIBA has already controversially banned headgear for male amateur boxers, adopted a professionalstyle 10-point scoring system and created two of its own for-profit boxing series.
The no-headgear rule means, with or without pros, boxing at this summer’s Rio Games will already look unlike any other Olympics since padded headgear was introduced for the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
In the lead up to this vote, Wu had repeatedly mentioned Manny Pacquiao as a superstar possibility for Rio but the 37-year-old Filipino box- er has since indicated that he will focus on his political career.
Ukraine’s Wladimir Klitschko, who won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games, had indicated he would like another chance at the Olympics before he retires but the 40-year-old is already slated to fight Tyson Fury at the same time as the July 3-8 Rio qualifying tournament for pros taking place in Venezuela.
It’s far more likely that Olympic interest will come from the lower ranks of professional boxing not the superstars of the sport.
“I don’t think you are going to see any big, big names,” Mandy Bujold, one of Canada’s Rio-bound boxers, said. “A guy like Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather is used to fighting 12-rounders. Put them into the ring for three rounds against a top amateur boxer at a much faster pace and they’ll lose a fight, and how bad is that going to make them look?”
“You might see some up-and-coming guys who wanted a chance at the Olympics and didn’t get it.”
That a professional could lose to a top amateur is a viewed shared by Mike Tyson.
“It’s ridiculous, it’s foolish and some of the pro fighters are going to get beat by the amateurs,” he said recently.
But Canada’s Lennox Lewis sees it differently and has argued that letting pros into the Olympics will crush the dream for amateur boxers.
“Obviously, for most amateur ath- letes their dream is to go into the Olympics and win and that really catapults them to being a professional. But now it will really hinder them because they have no chance going in against professional people who have a lot more experience,” said Lewis, who won Olympic gold for Canada in 1988 before turning pro and winning the world heavyweight title.
As well as adapting to a three-round bout instead of the 12 rounds they’re more used to, professionals would also have to fight as many as five times in an Olympic tournament and be subject to more stringent antidoping policies.
Most boxers who will be in Rio have already qualified but there are still some places up for grabs. Amateur boxers get their last shot June 14-26 in Azerbaijan and AIBA has said there are 26 quota spots for professionals on offer in their July tournament.
Given how late this decision has come — Rio is only two months away — it seems more likely that any substantial mix of professional and amateur boxers in the Olympic ring won’t happen before the 2020 Tokyo Games. But if some pros qualify this time, the amateurs will be able to hold their own, Boxing Canada president Pat Fiacco said.
“Olympic boxing, just like any Olympic sport, is the world’s best athletes in their respective disciplines,” he said.
“Honestly, I would put up any one of our top Olympics boxers against any pro boxers around the world.
“I think we underestimate the talent of our Olympic athletes.”