AIBA TO DECIDE ON WHETHER TO ALLOW PROS TO COMPETE IN RIO OLYMPIC BOXING
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 01 Jun 2016
Dr Wu.
The international governing body for boxing ? AIBA ? which is under the jurisdiction of the International Olympic Committee was scheduled to meet in a special congress in Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday whether to allow professional boxers to compete in the Olympic Games beginning with Rio de Janeiro this August.
ABAP executive director Ed Picson who is attending the congress together with ABAP president Ricky Vargas informed The Standard that on Tuesday ?they just had a meeting with Dr. Wu (Ching-Kuo) the AIBA presidentand had a short chat with him after.? Picson gave no details.
Boxing Scene reported that aside from the issue of pros fighting in the Olympics, AIBA, Amateur boxing's governing body ?will also have to answer questions about its dope testing policies when it gathers before an International Olympic Committee executive meeting in Lausanne that will be dominated by doping scandals.?
The report noted that while ?the boxing revolution is unlikely to see the likes of former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko or top American fighters compete for gold in Rio with eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines also discarding a possible ?wild card? entry in order to concentrate on his pressing duties as a senator after being proclaimed recently, the entry of pros to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will ?boost the card.?
It's been pointed out that it's already too late for most professionals to take part in a qualifying contest for the Rio Games and as the Philippines IOC executive Frank Elizalde
told us recently Pacquiao, even if he wants to, will not be eligible to compete in Tokyo because he?d be over the 40 year age limit.
The Philippines will support the plan of Dr. Wu to allow pros to compete in the Olympics and as one top AIBA executive told Boxing Scene letting in professionals is "part of the evolution of boxing" and it is expected to pass easily as Dr. Wu claimed he had spoken to all the National Boxing Federations and received no objections to his plan.
Boxing has undergone major changes in recent years. Women were allowed into Olympic competition in 2012 and headguards will no longer be compulsory from Rio.
However, there are several former world champions who are against the proposal to allow pros to compete in the Olympics. Former Olympic and world heavyweight title holder Lennox Lewis said it would be "preposterous" to let professionals into the same ring as amateurs while leading promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank branded the idea ?Insane.?
More significant will be the reality that AIBA president Wu Ching-Kuo will have to face questions at the IOC executive about boxing's doping practices, as the Olympic movement confronts mounting accusations over banned substances.
Boxing Scene reports that A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report found that the AIBA has ?not carried out any out-of-competition tests in the year ahead of Rio and hardly any in the past three years? according to the British magazine Private Eye. The report was quoted as saying that the AIBA's actions fell "considerably short" of WADA's requirements.
WADA spokesman Ben Nichols would not comment directly on the substance of the Private Eye report but confirmed that the agency's inspection team had given AIBA recommendations aimed at "improving and enhancing" its anti-doping program and that AIBA had started working on the implementation of the recommendations.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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