Professional boxers can compete at Rio Olympics

Professional boxers can compete at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the sport's governing body ruled in a landmark decision on Wednesday. Meeting at an extraordinary congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, 95 percent of the AIBA delegates voted in favour of the controversial move, an AIBA statement said. "This is a momentous occasion for AIBA, for Olympic Boxing, and for our sport as a whole, and represents another great leap forward in the evolution of boxing," AIBA chief Wu Ching-Kuo said.
But the potentially revolutionary decision is unlikely to see boxing's biggest names enter the Olympic ring in Rio. For most professionals, like former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, it is already too late to take part in a qualifying contest. The last tournament is in Venezuela in July. In an interview with AFP, Wu described Wednesday's historic vote as "a first step", adding that among the 28 sporting disciplines represented in Rio, boxing was the only one with restrictions on professional athletes. Wu has aggressively supported the move, arguing that the distinction between amateurs and professionals had become increasingly arbitrary. The admission of professional basketball to the Olympics in time for the 1992 Games in Barcelona has helped make men's basketball one of the most hotly-anticipated events of the Games. There is a rich history of fighters making their name at the Olympics before moving on to have groundbreaking professional careers, including Muhammad Ali, who won gold at the Rome Games in 1960, when he was still known by his birth name, Cassius Clay.