Olympic historians will record 11.45 local time in Rio today as the moment boxing history was made.
According to the schedule following Thursday’s draw, little-known Italian lightweight Carmine Tommasone will become the first fully professional boxer to step into the ring at an Olympic Games.
Facing the 32-year-old, who secured his slot last month in a special qualifying tournament reserved for professionals, in the fourth bout of the opening day’s action will be Mexican Lindolfo Delgado.
Tommasone is one of three professionals who have qualified from outside the AIBA team and individual competitions that allow boxers to retain their amateur status while fighting for prize money.
The others are Cameroon’s ex-WBO interim middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam N’jikam and Thailand’s 36-year-old former IBF flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng, who was beaten by Delgado in the qualifying final.
Light-heavyweight N’Dam N’Jikam will also fight today, in the evening against Brazilian Michel Borges, while Ruenroeng must wait until tomorrow evening for his opening bout against Argentina’s Ignacio Perrin.
The men will be fighting without headguards for the first time since the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the first to do so will be Britain’s light-flyweight Galal Yafai and Cameroon’s Semplice Fotsala in the opening bout.
Four of the five returning Olympic champions received first- round byes, their number including all three female gold medallists from 2012.
Britain’s flyweight champion Nicola Adams, Ireland’s lightweight Katie Taylor and American middleweight Claressa Shields will all have to wait and see who their first opponents are going to be.
All three need win only one fight to be sure of at least a bronze medal, the reward for losing semi-finalists in Olympic boxing.
The men’s middleweight draw could have a gaping hole in it after news that Irishman Michael O’Reilly failed a dope test before arriving in Rio.
The Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA) has so far confirmed only that one of their boxers tested positive, without giving a name, but Irish media have identified 23-year-old O’Reilly and boxing sources in Rio confirmed that was correct.
O’Reilly had been given a bye in the draw and was not due to fight until August 12.

Morocco boxer held over alleged sex attacks in Olympic Village
Brazilian police arrested a Moroccan Olympic boxer yesterday for allegedly sexually assaulting two female cleaners in the athletes’ village in Rio de Janeiro.
Officers arrested Hassan Saada, 22, from Casablanca, on suspicion of committing the assault on Wednesday, said a police statement released hours ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony.
“According to investigations, on August 3 the athlete sexually assaulted two Brazilian room cleaners who were working in the athletes’ village,” it said.
Police sources told the news site G1 that Saada was accused of calling the cleaners to his room on the pretext of asking them a question and then improperly touched them. The women managed to escape.
The site said that two other athletes were allegedly in the room at the time but did not react to the assault.
A court granted a police request for Saada to be held in preventive detention for two weeks pending investigation, the statement said.
The International Boxing Association lists Saada as a former Moroccan youth champion and “newcomer to the international scene.”
He was to fight in the 81-kilogram (178-pound) or light-heavyweight category in the Rio Games.
Saada had been scheduled to fight Mehmet Nadir Unal of Turkey today in his first bout of the Games, G1 reported.