Indian boxer Vijender Singh, who turned pro last year, may not be able to participate in this year’s Olympic Games at Rio despite the door being open for professional boxers to participate.
The International Boxing Association (AIBA) have called an Extraordinary Congress, to be held on the 1st of June ahead of the start of the Olympics, where the proposal, which was put forth last year, will be put to vote.
Should the proposal be ratified, pro boxers will have the opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games through a series of events affiliated to AIBA – the World Series of Boxing and AIBA Pro Boxing, both of which were scheduled for May 2016. In case the proposal is approved, both will likely be pushed back to June to give boxers a shot at Olympic participation.
Vijender is currently in Liverpool, training for his bout against Hungarian middleweight Alexander Horvath, which is scheduled for the 12th of March.
The Indian has won all three of his previous bouts, successively beating Briton Sonny Whiting by technical knock out, Nottingham-based boxer Dean Gillen, and in arguably the biggest match of his career thus far, took on Bulgaria’s Samet Hyuseinov and won. The final win gave Vijender three of three knockouts, which will stand him in good stead going into the match against Horvath.
It is the Hungarian who, although younger than Vijender, has significantly more experience, and 5 wins from his seven fights so far. A confident Vijender has said he does not view the 20-year-old as a ‘major concern.’
The problem with Olympic participation lies significantly in the fact that India currently does not have a boxing federation. Nominations to the World Series of Boxing and AIBA Pro Boxing are both left to national bodies, which India does not have at the moment – and only have until the end of the month to do so.
According to the proposal, there would be 26 slots available for boxers qualifying for the Olympics via the WSB and AIBA Pro Boxing.
In a statement, PK Muralidharan Raja, the president of the Indian Boxing Council, said that he felt the decision to allow pro boxers to participate in the Olympics would only truly bear fruit at the 2020 Olympics, and have no effect this year.
However, the proposal itself has been met with criticism from boxers, critics and enthusiasts, who say the difference in competition is too ‘different’ for it to be a fair contest.
