Boxing is one of the sports found in the original Olympic Games and has been a part of the modern Olympic Games since 1904. Boxing is extremely popular and legendary professional champions such as Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar Dela Hoya, just to name a few, found their roots in Olympic glory.
AIBA, the International Federation in charge of Olympic Boxing competition, fell into disgrace and, in fact, ruined amateur boxing with its multiple scandals over the past two decades. AIBA modified the nature of boxing in the amateur field and began a process in which they, among other disgraceful measures: i) became managers and promoters of boxers, which is a direct conflict of interest; ii) removed the head guard from competition; iii) orchestrated a corrupt officiating system; and, most importantly, eliminated the distinction between amateur and professional athletes. That last measure allowed professional boxers to qualify and compete in the Olympic Games, starting with Rio 2016.
The International Olympic Committee and its President Thomas Bach have heroically stepped in and have taken unprecedented actions in an attempt to save boxing and its participation in the Olympic Games.
The IOC took an aggressive role in investigating AIBA’s operations and, after a process which lasted more than a year, finally suspended AIBA and took away their role as administrators of boxing leading to Tokyo 2020.
The IOC is responsible for giving the Olympic Games to the world. Each sport is responsible to organize competitive, clean and safe athlete participation during the Olympic Games. It is now up to Boxing to save itself and collaborate with the IOC to give to the world what it expects from that ancient sport during the Olympic Games.
The IOC appointed a Task Force to oversee the process and competition for Tokyo 2020 under the leadership of Mr. Morinari Watanabe of Japan. The IOC has given each country the responsibility and opportunity to conduct their own qualification process organized by their national Olympic committee in conjunction with the corresponding national boxing federation.
It is the absolute responsibility of each nation to produce the talent which will have the opportunity to compete for Olympic glory.
It is understandable that the IOC would not get into complicated details of the sport of boxing and has carried on with the rules established by AIBA for Rio 2016. Boxing is struggling with the burden of AIBA’s collapse and failure, as well as AIBA’s actions which were contrary the health and safety of the athletes … but now there is a great opportunity for boxing to find the right path and bring back the Olympic dream to the minds of the young athletes of the world.
The WBC conducted a world consultation within Boxing Federations, Boxing Commissions, promoters, managers, trainers, media, fans, and most importantly boxers, both amateur and professional. On Tuesday, October 22nd, during the WBC 57th annual convention in Cancun, Mexico, a very lively discussion took place which involved delegates from all over the world. The conclusion was clear and unanimous: NO PROFESSIONAL BOXER SHOULD COMPETE AGAINST AMATEUR FIGHTERS, LIMITS SHOULD BE PUT ON THE EXPERIENCE OF THE PROFESSIONAL FIGHTERS, BEFORE THIS TOPIC MAY BE REEVALUATED.
Why ?
* There is no distinction in the definition between one professional fighter and another; there are no levels, limits or criteria: a professional boxer is a professional boxer regardless of whether he or she is a 4-round fighter or a World Champion. However, there are marked differences between a 4-round fighter and a world champion in skill, development, strength, maturity and ability to hurt another and/or be hurt.
* Professional fighters are much more mature and hold superior physical and mental strength when compared with young amateur fighters.
* Professional fighters are required to make weight one-day and for one fight at a time. Amateur fighters to have to remain under a set weight for 15-days or more.
* The mindset and purpose of amateur fighter are to score points. Professional boxing is more about inflicting punishment upon one’s opponent.
* Amateur boxers are motivated by growing as athletes and bringing glory to their locality, region and country. Professional boxers’ motivations are closely linked to business and financial interests.
The WBC Board of governors listened to the opinions and formal positions of many during the open floor meeting and it was unanimously voted to state the official position of the WBC, which represents the voice of the community of boxing worldwide.
It is recommended to all National Olympic Committees and National Boxing Federations to consider the words of concern about the dangerous disparity in level of competition and to organize their national qualification process exclusively with amateur fighters or fighters with very limited professional experience.
For those reasons, the overwhelming majority of countries around the world have already decided that professional boxers will not be allowed in their Olympic teams. Among those countries, most notably listed are:
* USA * Canada * Ukraine
* Japan * Spain * Russia
* Romania * And many more
No Olympic medal is worth a person’s life. The boxing community of the world must be united and support the International Olympic Committee’s efforts to bring back boxing as the major sport that has always been during the Olympic Games.
We respectfully confirm our position and with the hope that all like-minded people stand together for the safety and protection of our athletes.
Mauricio Sulaimán
WBC PRESIDENT
Allowing pros to compete in the Olympics reflects the degradation of the Olympic ideal. Historically, the Olympics were all about the best amateurs in the world competing for glory. Allowing paid professionals to re-enter the amateur ranks is both irresponsible and unfair to the fighters who’ve sacrificed so much to maintain their amateur status for the sole purpose of winning Olympic gold.
WBC teaching lessons to other.. Funny !
They sound kind of upset that they don’t have a monopoly on corruption.
I totally agree with no professional boxers in the Olympics . Shame on those calling their professional boxers to form their boxing Olympic team. One of them is the Mexican commission, that even sent an invitation to Andy Ruiz.
Amateur boxing should never be mixed with professional boxing
I agree with everything but how do you justify the age limit in the olympics. I know many international fighters turn pro late so what is the difference between that and a professional when compared to their maturity and physical development?
I thought Sulaiman and his round 12 pearls of wisdom were behind us. Looks like he’s back.
Did you know that he is the son of Jose?
No grood professional will fight at the olympics for the same reason they wont fight the best pros. THEY MIGHT GET EXPOSED!!! Also the WBC wont be able to collect a sanctioning fee. PROFESSIONAL BOXING IS GARBAGE!
Amateur boxing should have some regulations that I haven’t see yet. One of them is the number of fights a boxer should be allowed to have before an Olympic event, being 200 IMO the limit that a boxer can have, despite his age. Amateurism in any discipline is highly political in some nations and the athletes are used to divert the attention of the population from their political problems. Regarding to boxing, in most of the cases a boxer waste his best days collecting worthless pieces of metal to make proud a government, living in poverty and forgotten when retired from boxing. In other cases when they have the opportunity to become professionals, the time to succeed is too little that they have to go in the fast track from the beginning. Some worthy to mention are Guillermo Rigondeaux (475-12), Oleksandr Usyk (335-15), Oleksandr Gvozdyk (225-30), Vasyl Lomachenko (396-1). All of them turned professional when they were over 25 years of age.
Just try to imagine them turning pro at 18 or 19 years old and having enough time to reach greatness gradually. I see Lomachenko wining the 126 at 20 years of age, 130 at 25, 135 at 29 and now at 32 talking about retirement with a record of 45-0, after cleaning up all the divisions he fought.
Anyone should be able to try out for a slot on the Olympic boxing team, just as they do in basketball, hockey, etc. The World Series of Boxing proved years ago that the distinction between pro and amateur is forever blurred. The WSOB, incredibly, permitted amateur boxers to have professional bouts, yet remain amateurs. The international amateur associations are just as corrupt as the professional boxing sanctioning body clowns.
Not really-pros have pretty much ruined the Olympics in all sports. Now the Olympics is pretty much just another pro event.
Amateur boxing should not be mixed with professional boxing. That’s why amateurs should be kept out of the Olympics – just like in all other sports. The Olympics’ purpose is to crown the best of each respective sport, and not the best amateur. Amateurs should have their own, independent world championships. That way, its a win-win situation for all.