Boxing in Olympics.

Correct me if I'm wrong but only Amateur boxers are allowed to compete in the Olympics?

I'm pretty sure other sports do not have this restriction set. Why does boxing?

 

:huh

It's a legitimate question. I can't search engine anything at work and I want to kno why this is. I see Pro Tennis players playing in the Olympics without any issues. Why should boxers be restricted?

EDIT: So the Amateur boxing commisions decide upon this?

 

I could care less about Manny. I'm just curious about this in general when I was reading up on some tennis players and saw that they regularly participate in professional matches and also the Olympics. What makes boxing special that Pro's cannot also compete? That is the whole point of this thread.

 

The top hockey players, top basketball players, top baseball players (assuming it stays in the Olympics) all play now. The communist countries used to send their "professional amateurs" to the Olympics back when there was the iron curtain, and the west simply couldnt compete. I believe it used to be that once you got paid for playing, you were ineligible.

I can't see why pro boxers nowadays couldnt fight in the Olympics, but other than a medal, why would they? They won't get paid. Wlad wouldnt make 20 cents fighting for Ukraine now, let alone 20 Million he made last Saturday. And they might get hurt...for free...and not make any money again.

I bet if mma is included, you'll see the top names fighting for a medal. Too many boxers now are all about the $$$ and zero pride. I don't like mma in particular, but their athletes seem to care more about the sport moreso than most boxers. They fight for minimal money, even the top guys, for the love of ther sport.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this site based out of Chicago? If it is, and that's what Eastside refers to, than the correct name for the sport is SOCCER! (it may not be Chicago, I dunno, but the sport is called soccer. In Football, the players don't fall to the ground like David Haye everytime there is contact and cry and scream to the refs for a yellow card or a flag. Real men play Football...)

 

I'll have some of what you've been smoking, thanks. The top MMA fighters might fight for minimal pay compared to the top boxers, but they're still fighting for a decent purse and that is most certainly the reason they're fighting - not purely for the "love of their sport". That may have been the case for some of the participants years ago, but not now. (At the highest level, that is.)

 

So it amounts to each boxers' willingness to go into the Olympics? I guess a lot of boxers these days are shallow...

I do recall a thread a while back. Being an Olympian is not only a great pride individually, but to your whole country. You go on the record books as an Olympian and greatest athlete of the time in your perspective field. What a waste.


Good reply till you went a bit offtopic And football is the original name, what you're refferring to is American football that is played in America.

 

Off-topic, but you're wrong here. "Soccer" is colloquial abbreviation of association football - so it's still football.

 

That's still only one field. Why do different events nitpick while others send their pure best like basketball, tennis, track, swimming?