Amateur boxing would like to get rid of headguards after next year's London Olympics in a move that will take the sport ever closer to the professional version.
International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) president Wu Ching-Kuo also told Reuters in an interview that London 2012 will have a new scoring system to ensure fights cannot be manipulated.
The changes to scoring, making each ringside judge openly accountable for his actions, will be welcomed but any move to ditch head protection is sure to be controversial with the medical profession.
Wu said however that AIBA's new World Series of Boxing, which features bare-chested boxers without headguards and paid prize money, had led to a rethink of the traditional amateur approach.
"I took a very big step introducing the WSB, introducing the professional competition with no headguard and no vest," declared the Taiwanese.
"This is very much a test. The reason I can take this test is because the material for the gloves has been improved tremendously. The material absorbs a lot of this impact.
"The boxers are so happy. Without headguards they suddenly feel completely relaxed. It's a relief from this very tight thing on the head," he added, speaking at the SportAccord convention in London.
Wu said AIBA's medical commission planned to collate data from the first three seasons of WSB and then present it to the International Olympic Committee.
The first season, involving 12 city-based franchises around the world from Los Angeles to Astana, had seen only five or six knockouts from 360 bouts.
"In 2013, we will evaluate and then present it to the IOC medical commission," said Wu. "They will examine our data and the evidence we have collected. If they feel comfortable, then maybe (headguards will go).
"I think if you ask everybody involved in boxing, nobody likes it (headguards)," he added. "For me, as president of the AIBA, I want to go step by step. It must be fully proven that safety is no problem.
"We will still need to keep the vest for amateur boxing because of the country name."
SCORING MANIPULATION
Wu said AIBA had devised a new electronic scoring system to replace the one used at the 2008 Beijing Games, where there was fear that members of the organisation or competition officials had tried to manipulate bouts.
"The past scoring machine was if three of the five judges push the same colour button within one second, you get one point. We found out this still has room for manipulation...so we wanted a new machine," he declared. "After research and testing it is now ready.
"So we are sending it to all the national federations now. If the judge pushes the button, he has to be responsible. His personal score will be recorded. It is open, so he has to be very careful and responsible."
Wu said the system would be used for the first time later this month at the women's world junior championships in Turkey and then the men's world championships.
"The IOC is so happy to see it," he said. "We have spent a lot of time and money to develop this new system."
The WSB series, with $500,000 in prize money for the winning team, has blurred the lines between professional boxing and what AIBA nowadays prefer to call Olympic-style rather than amateur. That distinction could become even cloudier in future.
Wu hinted that AIBA could one day sanction full professional fights, under their own rules and carefully-controlled conditions.
"Now we have WSB, step by step," he said.
"The Olympic medals are awarded to the best athletes. The golds have to be awarded to the best athletes in that sport. If the professional boxing is not in the Olympics, people wonder if that boxer is the best -- just like in tennis in the past.
"For us maybe the sports are different because we are concerned with safety and we have to be very cautious, step by step, evaluation all the time.
"If they (amateur boxers) join the WBC, WBA, they can never come back to AIBA. It may be that one day in the future AIBA have their own professionals but not now. We have to concentrate on WSB, make sure it is successful. Maybe in the future."
