The biggest change in the history of Olympic boxing was back under the microscope after the first professional fighters to ever compete in a Games were all eliminated in double-quick time.
 After world governing body AIBA announced in early June that professional boxers would be allowed to compete in Rio, leading welterweight Amir Khan said he might fancy it, while former champions Manny Pacquiao and Wladimir Klitschko had both expressed interest. In the end though, Rio ended up with three little-known boxers from Thailand, Cameroon and Italy.
 One fell out the Olympic trapdoor on Saturday, the first day of competition, and the next two followed on Tuesday.
 Amnat Ruenroeng, a 36-year-old Thai lightweight who took up boxing after getting imprisoned for robbing a tourist, received an especially savage beating at the hands of young Frenchman Sofiane Oumiha and failed to even see the three-round bout to its conclusion.
 The AIBA, which faced stinging criticism for the decision to allow in pros, denied that the number of professionals who ended up in Brazil and their questionable calibre represented a failure.
 “The most important thing is that this decision was not Rio 2016 driven, it was for after that and for the long-term legacy of boxing,” a spokesman said. “The principle was to open the door to boxers and give them an opportunity to compete at the Olympics, which is the pinnacle in sport and every athlete’s dream.”
 Chief among the criticisms directed at the AIBA, which has also done away with headguards for men, was that the move came too late for most professional boxers to take part in Rio and that the health of the rest of the amateur field was in danger.
 The AIBA, which is attempting to bring amateur boxing closer to the pro ranks to boost its popularity, said the fact that the three pros were all on their way home after just four days of boxing was evidence that the latter criticism was far wide of the mark.
 “It is proof of the high level of AIBA boxing and is contrary to what some people said when they claimed professionals were going to dominate,” said the spokesman, adding that 20 professionals went to a final qualifying tournament in Venezuela but only three qualified.
 And nor was it a “rushed decision”, he added, saying 90% of national federations had backed the move and “it was a whole process over a year in which we looked at all the consequences”.
 Fresh from their demise, Steve Bunce, a prominent British boxing journalist who is in Rio, called the trio of Amnat, Hassan Ndam Njikam and Carmine Tommasone “good professional boxing mercenaries”.
 He called the negative reaction to their inclusion in Rio “hysterics”. But he had words of warning for AIBA, tweeting: “Going forward to the Tokyo Olympics the men that run AIBA boxing need to think a bit harder about the types of pro boxers that qualify.”
 Jeff Powell, another veteran British boxing reporter, said that the three pros on display in Rio were so limited that they were never going to put the health of the amateur boxers in danger.
 But far better boxers might pose that danger in future, he said. “Everyone was talking about how it was going to be the possibility of severe physical damage,” Powell, a long-time reporter for the Daily Mail newspaper, said. “That would have been true if you’d had a Klitschko or a Pacquiao or somebody like that, but an ordinary journeyman is not going to inflict terrible damage.”
 
Bloody boxing bout puts focus on headguards
A victorious Algerian boxer says he fears getting headbutted in his next bout after he sustained a nasty cut in a bloody showdown with an equally wounded Russian at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday.
 The angry-looking cuts to lightweights Reda Benbaziz and the vanquished Adlan Abdurashidov will shine a harsh spotlight on a decision by amateur boxing’s governing body to ditch headguards for men for the first time since the 1984 Games.
 The AIBA says dumping the headwear will result in fewer concussions, and while many boxers are happier without them, some said in the lead-up to Rio that it could mean more cuts and more intentional headbutts.
 And with so many fights crammed into a fortnight, it gives precious little time for those wounds to heal between bouts.
 Benbaziz, 22, who won on unanimous points, is back in action in three days in the quarter-finals and fears his Mongolian foe could intentionally target his messed-up right eye, after the two fighters clashed heads on Tuesday. The fight was stopped twice in the second round for a tournament doctor to treat each bloodied man.
 The Algerian, who blamed the clash on the Russian, said as he headed off to see a doctor: “My next fight will hopefully be less physical. I wish I could wear headgear. I will have to be careful and try not to let the other fighter use his head, but if he does, it could affect me a lot.”
 Abdurashidov, whose deep cut left him with blood smeared on his neck and cheek, said the clash contributed to his defeat, which means he now goes home.
 “In the first minute after I got the cut, I was in a lot of discomfort and I ended up taking more punches,” he said. “In general I prefer not to wear headgear and feel it’s better for me, but today was a minus.”