The Money Man is back in business. Floyd Mayweather jnr returns to the ring in Las Vegas on September 17, meeting the WBA welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. This is clearly a prelude to a long-awaited showdown next year with Manny Pacquiao, a superfight that could earn them some $50 million (£31 million/€35 million) apiece.

On the other hand, if they care to shelve their get together until 2016, or, indeed, fancy a return, they could do battle in the Rio Olympics – for a gold medal.

That theoretically, becomes possible under the latest wheeze from AIBA, amateur boxing's governing body, who plan to change the rules to allow professional fighters to compete in the Olympics, apparently, it would seem, with the blessing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

So imagine this scenario. It is Rio 2016, and a 29-year-old Amir Khan, by then an undisputed champion of the world, enters the ring in an attempt to win the Olympic gold medal that just eluded him in Athens 2004 – possibly against either Mayweather (pictured below) or Pacquiao as by then they may have decided to settle their differences and collect the boodle.

Later the same evening, in a super-heavyweight bout, Mike Tyson comes out of retirement to make his Olympic debut at 50, going on to contest the final with namesake Tyson Fury.


Farcical? So it may seem, but if I read AIBA's blueprint correctly, illogical as it may be, it is actually feasible under plans to allow top pros to fight alongside, or against, amateurs, over three rounds but without headguards or vests under a ten point pro-style scoring system, should they so desire.

Technically they would need to qualify in a new pro tournament to be set up in 2013 to become eligible for Rio under the banner of APB (AIBA Professional Boxing).

AIBA President Dr C K Wu, who has received encouraging noises from the IOC, says: "I hope we can attract the very best professionals out there." Now I am all for removing the word amateur from boxing – the only Olympic sport still with that anachronistic prefix – and if Rafa Nadal, Magic Johnson and now Tiger Woods can compete in the Olympics, why shouldn't Mayweather, Pacquiao, Amir et al?

Anyway, in most countries, amateur boxers aren't amateurs anyway, being supported by the state, college bursaries, sponsorship or as in the case of Team GB, generous Lottery funding. How many Team GB boxers still have plumber, electrician, schoolteacher or even 'unemployed' on their passports? They are pro sportsmen or women – like most Olympic athletes who will be coming to the London Games. Which is as it should be.

But is introducing full-scale professionalism really what the doctor ordered? Has he thought it through? And if so, how does he reconcile the fact that while Britain's WBC super-middleweight champion Carl Froch would theoretically become eligible to compete in the Olympics, his long-time trainer Robert McCracken (pictured with Froch) would be barred from his corner as AIBA, while happily embracing professional boxers, are still refusing to rescind their scandalously petty-minded ban on coaches like McCracken who is in charge of Team GB - because of their association with pro boxing!


AIBA are keen to have the best boxers in the Olympics and world championships – but not the best coaches. The words double and standards come to mind.

There is no doubt that under stewardship of the 64-year-old English-educated Taiwanese billionaire construction engineer, who helped create and build Milton Keynes (incidentally now the home base of insidethegames), what had become a suspiciously dodgy organisation has been transformed. Thanks largely to Dr Wu it is a safer, healthier and, yes, more professionally-run sport.

Last year AIBA introduced their inter-city World Series Boxing (WSB) who allows salaried "amateurs" to retain their Olympic eligibility while boxing under professional regulations.

They claim it has been a great success, though some demur, and there are still no plans for Britain to take up a franchise. I think the jury is still out.

But this attempt by AIBA to set themselves up as professional promoters is a crackpot notion. It won't work.

Dr Wu should leave the real pro game to the real pros, like Don King, Bob Arum and Frank Warren.

The man whose ambitions are believed to stretch to succeeding Jacques Rogge as IOC President (and he has some worthy credentials for the post) says that a move towards professionalism is "very important" for AIBA.

That may be so. But as we say, how can he welcome pro boxers while continuing ban their coaches?

Pros in, but seconds out! How hypocritical is that?

It will be interesting to see if the US team, who are being assisted by the esteemed pro coach Freddie Roach, who trains Pacquiao and Khan, decide they need him in the corner in London.

You can't imagine Roach acquiescing to AIBA and forsaking his association with Pacquiao and Khan, no more than you can McCracken with Froch. And why should they?

So will AIBA have the bottle to take on the US governing body – and possibly the US Government? We'll see.


Understandably there has been a puzzled reaction to the pro game plan from most governing bodies, including the ABA of England, whose relationship with AIBA was soured by the abortive attempt at a coup by their former chief executive Paul King.

Since then it has become is apparent that AIBA have had their own agenda of retribution.

The ABAE's own representations on behalf of McCracken have been received with total intransigence.

As has a personal plea to Dr Wu (pictured) from Britain's influential IOC Executive Board member Sir Craig Reedie.

A cogently-argued letter from Andy Hunt, the BOA's chief executive, to the IOC's Director of Sport, in which he rightly pointed out that not having their regular coach in the corner would have a potential impact on the health and safety of the boxers, of paramount importance in a combat sport, has not elicited any movement, either.

One wonders what CAS (the Court of Arbitration for Sport) would make of an issue that surely now could be deemed a restraint of trade in the light of AIBA's eager professionalising of the sport.

Whether autocratic AIBA would deem themselves bound by any court ruling is debatable. But ignoring it would hardly enhance Dr Wu's own chances of becoming the IOC's head honcho.

For presumably Dr Wu agrees with the IOC when they say: "We encourage the participation of the best athletes at the Olympics."

So why not the best coaches?

There's no answer to that.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.