Professional boxers cleared to compete at the Olympic Games

Disgraceful, pointless and potentially dangerous decision.

 

I dunno....boxing is pretty weird in having the 'olympic champion!' be somebody way removed from the elite of his sport. It'll be fascinating to see how many pros sign up, how they're selected etc.

 

It's the way it's always been. It is dangerous to have some novice go up against an elite level professional world champion.

 

Seems a bit over dramatic....anyway, if these guys are so far removed from world class that zealously reffed three round contests vs the best guys puts their health at risk that kinda makes the point in itself

 

F'n phone. Legit averaging 10 edits per post to fix mangled autocorrections etc

 

This destroys boxing tradition. The olympics have traditionally been a spring board to a successful professional career. Olympic pedigree then rise through the ranks. Patterson, Ali, Frazier, foreman, Leonard, spinks, Whitaker, de la Hoya , Lewis etc

Sad if true.

The IOC have been consistently making stupid decisions over the years anyway. For example why should tennis and football ( soccer) be Olympic sports?

 

How many pro boxers that are at a world class level even going to bother competing in it?

 

Olympic competition has traditionally been about Amateuiand it should stay that way, every sport.

 

It is not 1970s anymore so this reason is not valid. Same with D&M

The Olympic boxers these days are professionals. They train like 25 hours a week, they have the best coaches and nutritionists etc. The only difference to pros is that it is a different sport.

Finland won and Olympic medal in pretty much all games between 1952-1992 (one or two exceptions), after that we have got a single fighter to Olympics (he lost in the first round). This is because Finns have thought this way too and trained like it was a tournament for novices, and gotten their asses kicked in qualifying tournaments.

The same with USA. It is not that US had turned into a soft nation since 1980s, nor are all the bantamweights and featherweights now playing basketball. It is just that US sends juniors to the tournaments, whereas East Europe and Asia sends their best athletes.

Olympic boxing and pro boxing are two different sports and thus anybody should be allowed to participate in either or both. In at least the last 20 years there hasn't been ANY reason to do otherwise.

However it is mainly a moot point since the best pros are not going to participate anyway (they have nothing to gain) and the semi-good pros are not going to beat the best amateurs on amateur rules

 

So you want Usain Bolt´and all the track-and-field stars, Michael Phelps and all the best swimmers booted? Why?

 

I knew someone would say that. And it's clever I give you that. Olympics is really about track and field and swimming and other individual sports which epitomize " faster, stronger , higher" or whatever the Olympic mantra is. Obviously track stays.

I guess my point is that the olympics should represent the highest achievement in the sport that competes in it. For both track and swimming the Olympiad is the pinnacle of their sport. For amateur boxers the olympics is the pinnacle also. For professional boxers it is not. For professional tennis players it is not.

Now one thing UGO, I know that you are among the most intelligent posters here and as such you can't get away with the same shit that some of the idiots get away with. Lol

I know hat you know the pint I was making and you deliberately made me have to waste my time to have to spell it out. Lol

 

So, apart form this being all about IOC making more money, it does raise an interesting prospect of how big the gulf is between professional boxers these days compared to amateur counterparts.
Even Mike Tyson pointed this fact out last week - some pros will lose to amateurs.

Joshua has said he´s interested, but can you imagine Eddie Hearn if he actually lost? ::

 

A professional cannot risk his reputation in an amateur ring.

 

I totally agree with your point here. I guess the only difference is that you see Olympic and pro boxing as two sides of the same sport whereas I consider them as two different sports. Thus, the Olympic gold is still the biggest price that can be achieved in Olympic style boxing and anybody should be allowed to go after it, just like in all other sports. If Canelo Alvarez wants to win a gold in pole-vault instead, let him try

 

True. But if the IOC weren´t sure of professionals entering for the 26 places available....why would they even bother to clear it?

 

Now they'll turn pro earlier and learn on the job- good!

 

no one who has made any kind of money wants to fight for free

 

When also ran contenders best known for getting thrashed by elite fighters start winning Gold it will become meaningless.

 

Japan could've had gold back in the day if they could have used Piston Honda

 

Basically the IOC are idiots. I need to apply for the job of president of the IOC and when I'm there I'll clean shit up

For starters I'll throw out tennis, soccer and other sports that have no business being in the Olympics .

 

They´re as bad (but sneakier) than FIFA.

Tennis
Football
Golf
Rugby Sevens
BMX Biking


We´re now up to 40 sports....back in 1968 at Mexico, they´re were 18.

 

agSliced.

 

What an odd time to make this decision.

 

Is it that dangerous?
a) Headguards are used
b) Softer gloves with more padding -KO % is minimal
c) Much shorter bouts: three rounds of 03:00 each

 

Very odd.

 

It's not dangerous at all....less than david haye fighting Shannon Briggs over 12 anyway

 

No headgear.

 

Do you mean ´they don´t use headgear in the Olympics´ or ´they shouldn´t use headgear in the Olympics´ :dunno:

 

So is Butterbean going to represent the USA at super heavyweight?

 

He won't be able to make the weight. Even super heavy requires its fighters to weigh in less than 400lbs Lol