Male boxers to abandon headgear at Rio Games after 32 years

For the first time since 1980 Olympics, male boxers will trade punches without any headgear at the Rio Games after the International Olympic Committee sanctioned a change introduced by world boxing federation AIBA.

Former world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medallist Lennox Lewis has described the plan of adopting professional boxers into Olympic boxing as very absurd and ridiculous.

Dr Ching-Kuo Wu has indicated that the last remaining barriers preventing full-time professionals competing in the Games are set to be abolished within a matter of months.

American boxer Joe Frazier fells his Soviet opponent Vadim Yemelyanov in the Olympic Super Heavyweight Boxing semi-final at the Korakuen Ice Palace during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

Female fighters will continue to wear headgear.

Manny Pacquiao has received an invitation to compete at the 2016 Olympics in Rio – but Floyd Mayweather has “absolutely” no intention of making a surprise return to the Games.

Until now only amateur boxers have been allowed to compete in Olympics, but professional boxers could appear in the summer.

Lewis told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek programme: ‘I kind of think it is preposterous, to a certain degree.

The measures, which would effectively eliminate the sport’s historic distinction between professionals and amateurs, will be put to a vote at an extraordinary congress of AIBA confederations. He finished his career with a 49-0 record as a professional.

The 50-year-old, who won gold at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 representing Canada before turning professional, retired in 2003 having won 41 of his 44 pro fights.

“I may be the best amateur in the world by winning the Olympics – now I really have to empty my cup, just like all Olympians do when they decide to turn pro, they empty their amateur cup and now they start learning as a professional, different scoring, a different type of boxing, longer rounds”.

Amateur boxing has had its share of Olympic champions who have gone on to become top professionals, among them Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Vladimir Klitschko. So many elements need to come together to make it to an Olympic Games, and the success stories will be those athletes who have prepared well and can cope with that pressure.