Jai Opetaia

[mike222]

The world junior champion has just won the Australian heavyweight championship at the age of 16.If he wins the upcoming Oceania Olympic qualifier he will become one of the youngest ever Olympians.He is 17 on 30 June.
He seems to have a bright future.

[JMac]

Did you hear AIBA wants to change a rule that you have to be at least 19 to box in the Olympics because they are going to be letting in the ATP and WSB pros in and with the IOC pushing the new 17-18 yr old Olympics (I forgot what they call that), they want to try and please the IOC and think they are protecting the younger boxers that could compete in the Olympics. Many Latin American countries are against it. Mexican Olympic boxers have been young as have many USA boxers. Meldrick Taylor was only 17 when he won gold in '84, Rauh'shee Warren was only 17 the 1st Olympics he boxed in. Amir Khan and many other Olympians have been younger than 19 when they boxed in the Olympics. I hope a whole lot of countries fight AIBA on this BS.

[mike222]

Its all about money for the AIBA. All that would happen is that it will drive youngsters to turn pro earlier as they will not wait for the next Olympics and that will dilute the quality.
The WSB is flawed at the moment but I guess its early days.

[JMac]

Its all about money for the AIBA. All that would happen is that it will drive youngsters to turn pro earlier as they will not wait for the next Olympics and that will dilute the quality.
The WSB is flawed at the moment but I guess its early days.

I agree that for a country like USA, who already has too many boxers going pro early, this will not help. Winning gold in the "Youth Olympics" will not carry the same weight as the regular Olympics. Boxers will definitely not stick around. The WSB on paper sounds good but at least in the US, nobody ever hears about it. The LA team does not make any money. It is no longer on TV in the US. If it wasn't for your reports on it, I wouldn't know anything about what is going on this season as I haven't bothered with the WSB website. I hear it is still doing OK in the other countries.