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Pacquaio: It would be an honor to represent my country at the Olympics

Manny Pacquiao has expressed his interest in representing the Philippines at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Wil Esco is an assistant editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2014.

Wu Ching-Kuo, president of amatuer boxing's governing body, has been proposing a rule change that would allow professional fighters to compete at the summer Olympic games. The International Boxing Association will vote on the plan in May, and if it goes through, Manny Pacquiao has expressed his interest in representing the Philippines.

"It would be my honour to represent the country in the Olympics," he told AFP. "If I would be asked to represent boxing, why not? I would do everything for my country."

The proposal for professionals to be allowed to fight at the Olympics has been criticized by the British Boxing Board of Control as well as ex-fighters such as Lennox Lewis, but Ching-Kuo is confident that professionals fighters will be at Rio.

"Professional boxers will be at Rio: I don't know how many, but they will be," the head of the amateur boxing federation, Wu Ching-Kuo, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Ching-Kuo went on to say that the professionals wouldn't just be hand-selected, and would still need to qualify in order to make it to the Olympic games.

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