2011. 10. 4. 18:29ㆍReport/Martial Arts
Rogge backs AIBA move towards professional boxing after London 2012
October 3 - International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge has claimed that he is supportive of the plan from the International Boxing Association (AIBA) to move towards professionalism after the London 2012 Olympics.
Earlier this year, AIBA President C K Wu revealed that a new programme, entitled AIBA Professional Boxing (APB), is set to be launched at the beginning of 2013.
It follows the AIBA run World Series of Boxing (WSB) competition, which was inaugurated last year, and sees boxers compete without head guards while being scored by three judges.
Like WSB, the new APB will allow competitors to retain their Olympic eligibility despite boxing professionally and could see professional boxers participate at the Rio 2016 Olympics, but Rogge admitted that the IOC is behind the idea.
"We are satisfied as long as the rules are followed," he told DPA, the German news agency.
"We will look into it.
"We have had the situation in other professional sports - tennis, football, basketball, ice hockey and golf."
Boxing is the only Olympic sport left which up to now sends amateurs to the Olympic Games as every other Olympic discipline is now professional.
Wu, who is also an IOC member, revealed at the AIBA Extraordinary Congress in Baku last month that he has already had positive discussions with Rogge on the matter.
"The IOC President is pleased to see AIBA making moves to take the sport forward and join all the other Olympic sports as we are now the only amateur Olympic sport," he said.
"Boxers have always felt that they have instantly had to turn professional after competing at the Olympics.
"We want to change that culture, show there is another way and this is now time for the sport to move forward."
The plan means that Wu could roll back decades of tradition where boxers usually turn professional after competing successfully at the Olympics.
Among those who have become professionals after winning Olympic gold medals is the most famous boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali - who won the light heavyweight gold medal at Rome 1960 Olympics under the name of Cassius Clay.
Other notable names include George Foreman, who won the heavyweight gold medal at Mexico City in 1968, and Sugar Ray Leonard (pictured above left), winner of the light welterweight title at Montreal in 1976.
Also on the illustrious list of names is Lennox Lewis who, fighting for Canada, won the super heavyweight gold medal at Seoul in 1988 before switching allegiance to Britain and becoming the country's greatest ever heavyweight.
Contact the writer of this story at tom.degun@insidethegames.bizThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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