- Associated Press - Friday, March 22, 2013

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Olympic boxers will fight without head guards in a pro-style scoring system starting this year after several significant rule changes by the sport’s international governing body.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) unveiled several rule amendments this week, but the two biggest changes will move the amateur sport much closer to the professional version.

Male boxers at the world championships in October and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 won’t wear the protective head guards adopted by the amateur sport before the 1984 Los Angeles Games. According to AIBA, medical data suggests that fighting without head guards will decrease concussions.

The amateur sport also is moving to a pro-style, 10-point scoring system, discarding the latest version of the much-criticized computer punch-count systems implemented after the Seoul Olympics in 1988.

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