Olympics: AIBA President Wants Boxing Rules Adjusted

The president of the Amateur International Boxing Association,  Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, has proposed to change the rules guiding boxing at the Olympics, saying Professional boxers could compete at this year's editionof the games.

Wu claimed that the template of Olympics says the best in each sports should compete and that's

missing in boxing as it only fields amateurs at all categories, and this may be made possible under new plans from the sport's governing body.

But he will have to wait for his proposal to be approved by the AIBA's executive committee, but Wu said: "We want something to change - not after four years, but now."

Wu was speaking at an AIBA Commissions meeting in Manchester on Wednesday.

"It is an International Olympic Commission (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," Wu said.

He added it was "absolutely possible" to change the rules in time for August's Olympics.

A British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) spokesman said: "The proposals have the potential to broaden the talent pool from which we are able to select boxers and we are look forward to hearing more about them in due course.

"In the meantime, we have a squad of talented boxers that are all training hard to qualify for Rio 2016 and all of our efforts are focused on helping them to achieve this."

The qualifying process for this year's Games is already underway, with 60 boxers having already secured their places in Rio.

British boxers are competing in the World Series of Boxing for the British Lionhearts team, with an Olympic qualifying event in May.

Wu, who has been president for a decade, added: "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?" BBC