It's a historic day for Olympic boxing. Professional boxers are now eligible to compete at the Olympic Games from this summer onwards.
In a decision that will doubtless cause intense debate among boxing fans, the International Boxing Association passed the motion to allow pro boxers to compete at the previously exclusively amateur competition at an AIBA Extraordinary Congress in Lausanne this morning.
This means that hypothetically former world champion Andy Lee could try and qualify for Rio if he decided to compete in the final qualification tournament in Venezuela at the end of the month.
However, if a country has already agreed to send a particular boxer in a certain weight category, they cannot now replace them with a professional. So for example Team GB have already picked Lawrence Okolie in the men's heavyweight category, so current world champion Tyson Fury won't be eligible to chase Olympic gold this year.
The decision is sure to be a contentious one, with one issue already highlighted by boxing fans being the possible mismatch between pro and amateur fighters. The World Boxing Council slammed the decision, calling it "shameful".
It certainly changes to landscape of the sport, and could potentially spell changes to the Irish High Performance amateur boxing programme which has produced so many Olympic fighters since 2008.
Paddy Barnes, judging by this tweet back in February, will be hoping after today's announcement that Zou Shiming stays well within the professional ranks this summer.
Pro boxers at the Olympics? This is all a ploy to get Zou Shiming to Rio and keep me "Paddy Bronze"! 🙈 @AIBA_Boxing
— Paddy Barnes OLY (@paddyb_ireland) February 24, 2016
