2016 RIO OLYMPICS: AIBA CANADIAN EXECUTIVE DEFENDS SENDING OF PRO BOXERS
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 17 Jun 2016
Pat Fiacco.
International Boxing Association (AIBA) Executive Committee Member and Boxing Canada President Pat Fiacco is in favor of sending professional boxers to represent their country in the Olympics and will let pro boxers from Canada to compete in the qualifying tournament for pro boxers. AIBA followed other sports in allowing full-time professionals to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
?The Olympic Games is intended to showcase the best athletes in the world,? said Fiacco as quoted by leaderpost.com. ?(Now) we?re going to truly see the best of the best competing at the Olympic Games.?
Professional boxers could earn a ticket to the Rio Olympics if they qualify in the tournament for pros slated from July 3 to 8 in Venezuela. The tourney will be held after the final amateur/open qualifier which starts Thursday in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The weight divisions that remain vacant after the Baku qualifier will then be opened for the pro boxers? qualifying contest in Venezuela. This qualifier will be for boxers from the World Series of Boxing, AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) and present professional boxers.
?I?ve received a ton of emails from professional boxers since (AIBA) made this announcement,? said Fiacco. ?(They?d) like to box for Canada. Yes, but we do have a criteria and it?s not just anybody. There?s only a few boxers who actually qualify in our criteria.?
Fiacco is a former four-term mayor of Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan in Canada. He is hoping that one or two Canadian pros can join his team in the Rio Olympics. Canada has not won an Olympic boxing medal since 1996 in Atlanta when heavyweight David Defiagbon garnered the silver medal.
However, he defended that Canada would not sacrifice the amateur/open boxers now in their national program in lieu of pro fighters.
?No one in Canada is losing the opportunity to go to the Olympic Games because they?re not a professional,? he said. ?The first priority is our ?open? boxers. That?s why I feel good about it. We haven?t taken anything away. What we?ve done is added an opportunity to get a medal by including the best boxers in the world. We should all be excited about that.?
Fiacco emphasized the value of open boxers working together with the professionals.
?The other thing is, in Canada, as soon as a boxer turns pro we forget about them and they forget about us. I don?t think that?s healthy. For Boxing Canada, we need to embrace them and make sure we?re continually working together with the pros. Boxing is boxing. We need to work together.?
He defended the move of including professionals in the Olympics from critics and opposed the opinion that pros will just destroy the amateurs. Truly he considered that some of the pros will be taking ?big risks? because of the unfamiliarity with amateur rules, with fast-paced three-round matches and a short interval between bouts.
?It?s a different game,? added Fiacco. ?I can tell you right now that any one of our top 10 athletes in the world of AIBA can take on any professional boxer, easily. That?s my opinion.?
He added that the Rio Olympics will just be the beginning of better things ahead.
?It?s going to be very exciting. I also think in (the) 2020 (Olympics) it?s going to be even better because they?ll have a longer time to prepare. We?ll see what happens. The first go-round is going to be very interesting.?
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