LONDON: Leading amateur boxers are to be offered the chance to turn professional while remaining eligible for future Olympic Games.
Traditionally, after every Olympics there has been a mass exodus of amateur talent into the professional ranks.
However, International Association of Amateur Boxing (AIBA) president Dr Wu Ching-Kuo wants to avoid such a scenario following London 2012 and plans to launch a 'halfway house' known as AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) next year.
Unliked other amateurs who have turned pro, APB fighters will be allowed to comepete at future Olympics, with their numbers capped at 66 -- the 56 top-ranked in the APB at the time plus 10 qualifiers from a World Series.
For the 65-year-old Wu this would resolve both the problem of the talent drain from amateur boxing and the issue of how to give that talent a steady income and well-planned career path.
Boxers who have fought fewer than 15 professional bouts would also be eligible to compete in APB contests.
"We can offer this special opportunity for the boxers," said Wu, elected in 2006 on the promise of sweeping reform of AIBA
"They can come back (to the Olympics) and then go back (to the professional ranks). The door is open.
"The boxers will receive a winning purse. We are fully protecting them with a good salary and a three-year contract, with four bouts a year."
Wu said for too long there had been little option for Olympic gold medallists other than to turn professional.
"The boxers would start at grassroots level and then achieve their highest dream in the Olympics but what was there for them to achieve after that, where was their career to go from there?
"We lost a lot of boxers after they won medals and didn't have anywhere else to go in the amateur ranks.
"I think to introduce AIBA professional boxing is very important, not only to give the opportunity for the boxer to continue his career after the Games in professional boxing.
"But they also have the opportunity to return to the Olympic Games with the full support and endorsement of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)."
The Taiwanese supremo, who was elected onto the elite IOC Executive Board on Thursday, said his scheme was the perfect opportunity for the boxers to enjoy the best of both worlds.
"It's a great incentive for them (the boxers) and their federations."
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