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Olympics Is Opening Its Rings to Professional Boxers

The Olympics, once a bastion of the amateur ideal, has in recent years welcomed millionaire professionals like Roger Federer and LeBron James, and this summer will host top golfers like Rory McIlroy.

Could Manny Pacquiao or Tyson Fury be next?

Boxing, one of the last Olympics sports nominally limited to amateurs, is likely to begin allowing professional boxers to compete in 2016.

As it stands now, a young fighter who chooses to begin boxing professionally forfeits his Olympic eligibility. Every sport in the Olympics used to have such rules, limiting basketball, for example, to college players.