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How an Olympic boxing rule change could form U.S. 'Dream Team'

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao could possibly compete in the 2016 Olympics.
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao could possibly compete in the 2016 Olympics.

Back in 1992, the United States national basketball team assembled a team of NBA pros to compete at the Summer Olympic Games after finishing third in 1988. The “Dream Team” — consisting of Michal Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and others — took the world by storm as they crushed the competition en route to bringing the gold home.

Could the U.S. boxing team assemble it’s own dream team for this summer’s games?

It’s very possible considering that the president of the International Boxing Association, Wu Ching-kuo, has suggested that a longtime rule that has prevented full-time professional boxers from competition could be abolished just in time for the Olympics.

“We want the best boxers to come to the Olympic Games. It is Aiba’s 70th birthday, and we want something to change – not after four years, but now,” Ching-kuo said in a recent interview with The Guardian. “It is an IOC policy to have the best athletes in the Games and, of the international federations, Aiba is probably the only one without professional athletes in the Olympics. We already have our own professionals, APB and WSB [World Series] boxers, in the Games [and] we will go further.”

This means that Floyd Mayweather could potentially compete and win the gold medal he was controversially denied of in 1996. It means American fighters including Deontay Wilder, Keith Thurman, Terence Crawford, Andre Ward and Tim Bradley could form a boxing “Dream Team” that could compete and rectify the fact that the 2012 men’s team was shutout from medaling in London for the first time in nearly a century.

It also means that Manny Pacquiao could potentially compete for the Philippines and Roman Gonzalez has the ability to represent his home country of Nicaragua in the 2016 Olympic Games. It would certainly change the face of the games and put a spotlight on Olympic boxing like never before.

Wu believes that it is very possible that these changes to the eligibility criteria could go through before this year’s games in Rio. It is something that Wu has pursued since 2006 in an effort to see the best boxers in the world compete in the Olympics. Back in 2013, new rules were introduced that allowed professional boxers to compete, as long as they had fewer than 15 paid pro bouts and signed a short-term contract committing themselves to the world’s governing body, Aiba’s professional arm, APB. But Wu wants to push the agenda further and fast track these new rules within the next few months.

Wu says that the possibility of a rule change has received a “very strong, positive response” and “everyone is excited and would like to see it.”

They aren’t the only ones who would be excited to see this change.