When will Anthony Joshua turn pro...maybe not for some time!

[Otley Snr]

news from boxingscene.com

 

 

Anthony Joshua brought a tumultuous end to the Olympic boxing tournament with a thrilling countback victory over Roberto Cammarelle, and insisted he would relish the opportunity to return to defend his title in Rio in 2016.

 

Lucrative professional offers are certain to follow for the unassuming Londoner, who clawed back a three-point deficit with a heroic final-round assault to claim Great Britain's third boxing gold medal of the Games by the slightest of margins.

 

But, with the gold medal hanging proudly around his neck, Joshua stated that he had no intention of following a path trodden by generations of Olympic champions by using his triumph as a route into the paid ranks.

 

"It's honestly not going to be hard to resist. To leave something as great as the Great Britain set-up just because of money would be a big mistake," said Joshua. "I don't want to lose that because of a bit of money thrown in my face.

 

"I didn't grow up with loads of money around me anyway, and I'm happy with the way things are. These memories are priceless. I want to go on and win world and European titles and dominate in the amateurs. That's where my head is at the minute."

 

The Finchley 22-year-old – who was such a late starter in boxing he had not even bothered to watch the action from Beijing on television four years ago – has made extraordinary progress since claiming a world silver medal in Baku last year. It was Joshua's quarter-final win over previous Olympic champion Cammarelle – in only his second major senior tournament – that catapulted him up the world rankings and turned the Englishman into one of the sport's prodigies.

 

Gradually, Joshua emerged from a tough Olympic draw, enjoying a bit of luck in a close first-round encounter with Cuba's Erislandy Savon, to set up the most dramatic Olympic finale imaginable as Cammarelle once again stood in the opposite corner.

 

Down by a point at the end of the first round after walking into a succession of right hands from the Italian, Joshua was struggling to get punches in and his dream of Olympic gold looked over when Cammarelle extended his lead to three heading into the final round.

 

However, a rousing performance – which invoked a reference to his favourite film 300, a movie about Spartan warriors – allowed Joshua to make the verdict an 18-18 tie before the announcement of the countback. That was supplied extra drama by an unsuccessful Italian appeal.

 

"The moral of the film is to never give up, to never surrender, and it was just like that in the third round," said the Englishman. "My legs were screaming but I kept throwing punches in there and kept pushing to the final bell."

 

Joshua's win helped Great Britain top the boxing medal table with three golds, one silver and one bronze, after Welshman Fred Evans was well beaten in his welterweight final by the superb Kazakh Serik Sapiyev. Evans simply did not get a look-in against the former double world champion, whose stiff jab kept the European champion at bay throughout and helped him ease to a 17-9 victory. He picked up the prestigious Val Barker Trophy for best boxer in the tournament.

 

"I don't have any complaints about the result," said Evans. "I could have done things better and I didn't stick to my game-plan, but I'm only 21 – I'm one of the youngest seniors here – and there is time for me yet.

 

"I have no plans to turn professional at the moment. I am going to go back and talk to the team, but I've still got a lot of things to learn and a lot of tournaments to fight. I have funding, so the money is not so much of an issue for me."

 

 

 

Job Biscuit (Money not a problem hey)!!!!

 

 

 

eh eh!!!

[WelshDevilRob]

I've read that from now on the amateurs will fight without headguards and the bouts scored on the 10 point must system that operates in the Pros. Anyone know if thats correct, or not?

 

Also, the Commonwealth Games are in Scotland in 2 years time, so maybe worth Joshua staying on for those.

[Otley Snr]

I have not heard this.....and I do think no headgear is a great step forward.....wearing headgear can be abit of a pain at times.....never liked them when I was an amatuer

 

 

Job Biscuit (and pro title fights should be put back to 15 rounds)!!!!

 

 

eh eh!!!

[gavpowell]

It'd not true - the AIBA is launching a sort of gateway scheme to help amateurs transition into the paid ranks. The new scheme will involve fights that are conducted similar to pro bouts, ie. no headgear and a 10-point-must system, but the actual olympics and amatur stuff will stay exactly the way it is now.

[Meathead]

Risky move.

 

Hes clearly a good Boxer but if he fails at the World Championships, doesnt medal in the Commenwealths or doesnt medal in Rio his earning potential will plummet.

 

Noble move if he does stay pro, but if I was his adviser I would get him to turn pro in the next 6 months. Strike whilst the irons hot and Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren will be falling over themselves to sign him.

 

At the end of the day, hes gotta make a living.

 

On the headguard thing, they are staying in the ama game.

 

The scoring is being debated though. I believe AIBA are gonna hold a consultation about whether or not to switch to 10 point must or not.

[poztin]

I've read differently Gav...

 

LONDON (AP) -- The president of amateur boxing's governing body expects to replace the sport's computerized scoring system with the traditional professional judging system before the 2016 Rio Olympics.

 

Wu Ching-Kuo told The Associated Press it's all part of his plan for Olympic boxing to look more like the pro game. AIBA intends to move to the pros' 10-point scoring system, which takes into account every aspect of fighters' skills, not solely their ability to land clean punches.

 

"We are on the way," Wu said. "It's better for the boxers. That competition style (means) everything, the whole aspect, is added together. The winner should be the better boxer."

 

The eventual move will trigger a fundamental shift in an amateur sport that has withered in the U.S. and other countries where pro boxing dominates. Olympic boxers will no longer be able to train merely to master the quirks of the computerized system, which records a point when a majority of ringside judges push a button indicating a fighter connected with a punch.

 

That system has been widely criticized for warping the sport into something resembling fencing with gloves, de-emphasizing everything from body punches - which don't usually yield many points - to ring control and even fighters' charisma.

 

Olympic boxing could look much different in Rio. AIBA also has considered getting rid of headgear for its men's fights, and Wu is determined to significantly increase the number of women's boxers in Rio after cramming just 36 into the highly successful debut tournament in London.

 

The changes in the scoring system will require significant re-training of referees and judges, but Wu believes it can be done well before Rio.

 

"It is on the way," Wu said. "I will do everything from a good concept, but we must evaluate properly, not rush. If you get (a change) started, it is difficult to come back. We always start with very good consideration, very good evaluation, and once we start, we will not go back from that."

 

The amateur sport moved to a computerized scoring system in the wake of Roy Jones Jr.'s infamously unfair loss to a South Korean opponent in a gold-medal bout at the 1988 Seoul Games. Three of the five ringside judges voted for Park Si-hun in the simple majority vote that decided amateur bouts at the time.

 

Wu already has implemented the 10-point system in the World Series of Boxing, the 2-year-old professional team boxing league operated by AIBA in its growing efforts to influence the sport at every level. Late next year, AIBA will debut APB, a professional boxing series that already has signed a large number of elite amateur fighters to participate in regular cards with salaries, insurance and Olympic eligibility.

 

AIBA's new professional ventures consume much of Wu's time these days, but he's also focused on improving the Olympic sport's refereeing and judging. This far-flung sport draws its officials from all corners of the world, yet they don't all see it the same way.

 

"When you look at the current judges, some of them qualified before I took over," Wu said. "A different continent, a different examiner. Now we want to try to bring them together. Their minds may not be standardized, because when they qualified, there was no such vision regarding this. So when I took over, I said, 'They have to standardize. They have to receive the training.'"

 

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/boxing-chief-hopes-change-scoring-151415402--oly.html

 

Have things changed since?

[gavpowell]

Oh OK, the stuff I've read is a lot less expressive than that and seemed to be referring to the hybrid competitions, but obviously he's gone further than that and said he wants to change it. Not that that's a guarantee it wilkl actually change, but he does seem pretty enthusiastic to overhaul the amateur code altogether Not sure about pros competing against amateurs though - seems dangerous.

[Sheils]

Would like to see him remain in the unpaid ranks a little longer, but the pressure will be on for him to sign as a pro - the wave of Olympic fever mean that he is probably more saleable now.

 

Just hope he does better than Harrison did!

[WelshDevilRob]

Just listening to Bunce's show and on there they reckon any Pro with under 15 fights will be eligible for the next Olympics - as long as they take part in the AIBA's new tournaments.

[davemurphy]

I have not heard this.....and I do think no headgear is a great step forward.....wearing headgear can be abit of a pain at times.....never liked them when I was an amatuer

 

 

Job Biscuit (and pro title fights should be put back to 15 rounds)!!!!

 

 

eh eh!!!

 

I kind of see it as a necessary evil at this point. A lot of people reminisce about the good old days when we didn't have headgear in the Olympics, but they forget the bad part where we'd have "walkovers" (advancing without fighting) because of cuts, and that was back in the days when Ams were trained better and did a better job of protecting their heads. With things like they are today, guys rushing in with abandon, I wouldn't want to be a cutman in the Olympics :)

[davemurphy]

There were a lot of things done wrong with Khan's career, but the one thing I thought they did right was to keep him as an Amateur that year after he won the Silver Medal. I don't think it's a bad idea to keep Joshua and the others in the simon pure ranks for added seasoning on the elite am level rather than fighting tomato cans as a young pro.

[gavpowell]

Has the outclass rule been done away with now too? aw a few of those when Khan was coming up, but nothing this year.

[robprosser]

It must have been as the scoring punches aren't made known until the end of the round.

[davemurphy]

Has the outclass rule been done away with now too? aw a few of those when Khan was coming up, but nothing this year.

 

I'm not sure if that 15 pt rule still exists or not, none of the fights I saw even came close to that margin. I do know that the paper ballot scoring will absolutely return (I assume in the 20 pt system that existed pre-1988 and with five judges, but who knows with these guys?) but last I heard the headgear was still being debated.