One of the last Olympic amateur sports opened its doors to professionals on Wednesday, but the move seemed to bring mostly criticism.
The measure passed at the amateur boxing federation (AIBA) congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, with 95 percent of the vote. “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,” said the president, Ching-Kuo Wu.
Despite Wu’s declaration, reaction was strongly negative, including criticism from the Irish professional Carl Frampton, the former British professional Ricky Hatton and the British professional Stephen Smith.