IABA President explains Olympic pro decision

Pat Ryan, President of the Irish Athletic Association, has outlined the rationale for the historic International Boxing Association (AIBA) vote to allow current professional boxers register with their National Federations.

Delegates from National Federation voted in a landslide to rescind Article 13 (J), which banned pro boxers from registering with National Federations, at an extraordinary AIBA Congress vote in Lausanne, Switzerland recently.

Pro boxers can now sign up with their National Federations and can compete in, if they qualify, the Olympic Games for the first time. The final Rio 2016 qualifier in Vargas, Venezuela, ostensibly a World  Series of Boxing versus AIBA Pro Boxing clash, in July is now open to pros.

Mayo light-welter Ray Moylette will compete at the Vargas qualifiers and a number of pro fighters have registered, and Cameroonian Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam is believed to be one of them. However, the entries won’t be released until Saturday’s weigh-in and draw. Boxing begins Sunday.

No Irish pro boxers will fight in Venezuela at a tournament which represent the end of the Rio qualification line for Irish and international boxers, regardless of code.

Pat Ryan, who headed the IABA delegation at the AIBA Congress vote and who voted to bin Article 13 (J), stressed that while pro boxers can register with their National Federations that ultimately it’s the decision of National Federations to select them.

The IABA President released a statement today which read: “The decision taken by AIBA to remove Article 13 (J) from its Constitution will not impact in any way whatsoever on our boxers who have already qualified for the Olympics in Rio and those who are registered for the forthcoming qualifying tournaments.

“If a professional boxer wanted to enter any of our competitions, the decision is entirely for our National Association. What this amendment means is that AIBA have empowered the National Federations/Association’s to make that decision if they deem it necessary and in the best interest of their boxers. So it is very clear the decisions and all decisions pertaining to this matter, is entirely in the hands of our National Association.”

“The decision to make this change was made after long deliberation and consideration to the following number of points.”

“Out of the 28 Sports participating in the Olympic Games, 27 have professional athletes participating in their sport. Boxing is the only sport who do not have professionals participating.”

“The International Olympic Committee have on their agenda for Tokyo 2020, that they want the best athletes participating in the Olympic Games. Should we not be compliant with the there 27 Olympic sport, it is quite possible another professional organisation could be given the task to participate in the Games.”

“I think it’s important to note, only the best professionals would likely be able to stand a chance of winning over 3 intense rounds of boxing, and those are the very people who would not risk defeat in their professional career to an amateur.”

“Three rounds of boxing is fought at huge intensity. Amateur boxing is a sprint and professional boxing fought over a duration of 8, 10, 12 rounds is a marathon.”

“I would have every confidence in Michael Conlan, Paddy Barnes, Stephen Donnelly or any of our Elite boxers who have qualified for the Olympics and having participated over many years in our remarkable High Performance Programme, to win over 3 rounds of boxing against any professional.”

“I don’t think we have any fear whatsoever with professional boxers coming into our sport to compete over 3 rounds of boxing. We are specialists in preparing our boxers to compete over 3 rounds of boxing. The Application, training methods, energy systems and training the components of fitness are similar but very different.”

“The progressive reforms AIBA have been making over the past 7-8 years is commendable and the initiation of two more developmental pathways along with the AOB namely the WSB (World Series Boxing) and APB (AIBA Professional Boxing) have been hugely successful for our boxers. The WSB Semi-Professional boxing was initiated in 2010. This initiative by AIBA has enabled three of our boxers Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan and Stephen Donnelly to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio. Testament that these pathways initiated by AIBA do work. The APB is AIBA’s professional boxing brand. A number of our boxers use this pathway to compete, as it is is also an Olympic qualifying route.”

*The word (Amateur) has been removed from the titles of all National Federations/Associations.

*The new title for IABA is Irish Athletic Boxing Association Ltd.

*The removal of Head-guards.

*Introduction of the 10 Point Scoring System

“The IABA’s decision to agree to the removal of Article 13 (J) from AIBA’s Constitution was supported by 96% of the delegates present. With 88 delegates entitled to vote – 84 delegates voted in favour and 4 abstained.”

“Ultimately, the  removal of Article 13 (J) by AIBA empowers our National Association IABA to make any future decisions in the best interest of its members in consultation with its stakeholders.”