Top professional boxers will become eligible to compete in this summer's Rio Olympics under radical new proposals being pushed through by the sport's world governing body, AIBA.

Its president, Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, has indicated that the last remaining barriers preventing full-time professionals competing in the Games are set to be abolished within a matter of months.

In an interview with Press Association Sport, Wu said: "We want the best boxers to come to the Olympic Games. It is AIBA's 70th birthday, and we want something to change - not after four years, but now.

"It is an IOC policy to have the best athletes in the Games, and of the international federations, AIBA is probably the only one without professional athletes in the Olympics.

"We already have our own professionals, APB and WSB boxers, in the Games - [and] we will go further."

Pressed on whether the change could realistically be made in time to affect eligibility for the Rio Olympics this summer, Wu replied: "According to our statutes it is absolutely possible."