An amateur boxer beats pro boxer ahead of the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. This proved to be a big story at the time.

The controversial move ahead of this year’s 2016 Olympic games to allow professional fighters compete in the Olympic Games is now in full swing at the moment in the qualifying event in Venezuela.

Before hand, a lot of people were saying how unfair it would be for the amateur fighters in terms of going up against the pros, but people within the boxing business (such as Barry McGuigan) actually said the reverse could be true, due to professional fighters needing to change their training ethos to focus for the shorter duration and for the style difference from prizefighting.

This appears to be the case at least from the early bits of action so far at the qualifying event anyway, when 35 year old Serbian professional middleweight Geard Ajetovic went tumbling out on the very first day against 23 year old Dominican amateur Sanchez Marte.

The other two remaining professional fighters involved in the Olympic qualifying event are former middleweight world title challenger Hassan N’Dam and former IBF flyweight world champion Amnat Ruenroeng.

Their inclusion in the qualifying tournament comes despite warnings from both the WBC and the IBF that any professional fighter caught participating in this year’s Olympics will face a ban from their rankings.