By Gerardo Granados: It has just been announced that with a stunning 84 votes in favor, “none against” and 4 abstentions, that now professional boxers will be allowed to fight against amateurs. Mike Tyson and George Foreman have spoken against this possibility and the WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman stated that any boxer under the WBC who goes to Olympics will be banned for two years.
AIBA started to get mixed with the professionalism at the AIBA Pro Boxing in which boxers started to get paid. A couple of years ago AIBA changed their scoring system to a very similar 10 point must system used at the pro level. Then AIBA decided to remove the head gear from amateur competitions. Finally they will allow professionals in their competitions.
If originally AIBA was founded to regulate amateur boxing, and now they have made so many changes, then shouldn’t the AIBA stop to exist? Can a new legal entity be created to regulate amateur boxing? After all if we have four major pro boxing organizations, then why not a new amateur?
Maybe AIBA imagines that by allowing pros at the Olympic Games they will lure pro big names and champions to participate. Some showed interest, such as veterans Wladimir Klitschko and Manny Pacquiao; recently Amir Khan is considering participating too.
The inclusion of professionals in the Olympics, never again has had the impact the Dream Team had in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Back then the original and only Dream Team was able to draw worldwide attention towards them. It was unique and special but never again it has repeated.
If the rest of the major boxing organizations simply don’t do anything to prevent boxers ranked by them to participate, then they can be considered morally responsible if a tragedy occurs. The WBC might be the only boxing organization showing a real interest to protect the young amateurs but hopefully the rest of the organizations join them.
A friend told me it would be great to see Amir Khan fight against Manny Pacquiao for the Olympic gold. He thinks they would fight for the gold at the welter division, but he seems to not to understand that to reach the finals, they would have to fight against real amateur boxers first. “It’s only three rounds” he said, yes, for a pro it might be like a three round sparring session versus a way less experienced and skilled opponent.
I told to a friend that to allow pros at the amateurs was risky because a professional is developed into a fighting machine to earn money and many amateurs never even move up to the pro level.
If back in 2014 Vasyl Lomachenko (2008 feather, 2012 lightweight Olympic gold) lost to Orlando Salido on his second pro fight by SD12 (for the vacant WBO feather strap), it wasn’t because Lomachenko is not boxing skilled, it was because he didn’t have pro experience. Salido at the time, wasn’t even the top featherweight, what if Lomachenko had faced Nicholas Axe Walters instead?
Maybe the main Boxing Promotion Companies are willing to share their signed fighters with the OIC (Olympic International Committee), but let’s not forget that OIC is a legal entity that also gets huge revenues. Perhaps HBO and Showtime have no trouble sharing their signed big names, and will let them to participate and don’t care for the time those big names will not be active in the pro ranks, or even less, care if their signed boxers were to get cut or broke a hand.
Could it be greed the reason why of this AIBA absurdity?
I wonder if it is not amateur boxing the one that was killed, but if instead it was AIBA. But, what about the reader, do you think AIBA has lost any reason to exist?