Current unified world heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr made it clear this week that he’d like to represent the nation of Mexico in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman decided to speak out against the idea following the announcement that the Mexican Boxing Federation had opened the door to professional fighters to compete for the nation in next year’s Olympics.
The WBC looks to articulate their reasons to the International Olympic Committee, who allowed pro boxers to compete in the last Summer Games in 2016 in Rio.
The Mexican Boxing Federation (Femebox) announced that they will hold tournaments to help develop a “dream team” of Mexican boxers to establish the nation’s dominance on an Olympic level.
“Our position remains the same since Olympic boxing was opened up to professionals for Rio 2016. It has been a topic that has worried the World Boxing Council and the world of boxing a lot because there is a guideline when allowing professionals to compete with amateur fighters, there is no parameter and we consider that opening Olympic boxing in that way is highly risky for the physical integrity of the boxer,” said Sulaiman to ESPN Deportes.
“In boxing it is about making a matchmaking, there is someone specialized who is dedicated to approve or disapprove fights according to the degree of competition, and here the situation we’re faced with is that [the tangibles of a] professional and an amateur are different, there are many things that should be studied.”
“It is not a whim or a response at the moment, this same response was given by the last Olympic cycle based on studies on the differences between a professional boxer and an amateur,” Sulaiman continued. “We will continue to address the global issue because the WBC is represented in 165 countries. We have received information from boxers, managers, promoters, commissioners in this regard, and it is the voice of boxing that will speak. We will address the issue with the same concern as always because it does have importance with the future of boxing,”
Report: ESPN Deportes