David Haye: It's insane to allow professionals to box at Olympics
Wednesday 23 March 2016 15:37, UK
British heavyweight David Haye has slammed proposals to allow professional boxers to compete at the Olympics in Rio this summer.
International Boxing Association (AIBA) president Ching-Kuo Wu said last month that amateur boxing's governing body intended to open up the qualifying process for Rio 2016 to full-time professionals.
The plans will go before AIBA's Extraordinary Congress in May but have been heavily criticised by a series of boxing figures.
And former world heavyweight champion Haye told the SportsPro Live conference at Wembley that the move would put fighters' health at risk.
The 35-year-old, who is chasing a fight with 2012 Olympic champion Anthony Joshua after coming out of retirement, said: "You get these young kids who are training their whole life to go to the Olympics.
"To go there and not fight someone else like them but fight someone who might have won an Olympics before, been a world champion, and is just coming back to fight some kids, I think is insane.
"I think you're going to get some young kids hurt and you're definitely going to stunt their growth.
"Some kids may be able to handle it but a lot of them won't. How would you feel if your 17-year-old son was playing on a rugby team and all of a sudden he was playing Harlequins? The kid would get absolutely mullered, completely smashed to bits.
"Then they would think 'rugby's not for me'. They'll never become a professional because they've been so badly injured by these big, strong guys.
"Or a college American football team playing a professional NFL team? It's just not fair. One is men, one is kids. It just makes zero sense."
Haye is not sure that many professionals will bid for Olympic qualification but thinks a few may see Rio as a chance to kick-start faltering careers.
"To go back from [a pro career], it just seems like a cheat," he said.
"All it's going to take is one 17-year-old kid from Sweden fighting an American 30-year-old current world champion, who puts the poor kid into a coma, and then everyone will go 'why did you allow that to happen?'
"Obviously it is a contact sport, so why would you allow that 17-year-old boy to fight this 30-year-old man who has already won the Olympics 10 years ago? What's the point?"
