Reflecting the change in the landscape of international boxing, many of the competitors looking to secure a berth in Rio will be targeting the six Olympic qualifying events, which will be run under the umbrella of the AIBA Open Boxing (AOB), AIBA Pro Boxing and World Series of Boxing (WSB) formats.

AIBA has revealed there will be four AOB continental Olympic qualifying events in Africa, the Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe, which will see 115 men's places on offer, with the top three boxers in each weight category heading to Rio.

These events are scheduled to take place between February and April 2016.

A further 39 places will be available at an AOB World Olympic qualifying tournament which is pencilled in for June 2016.

Before then, an APB/WSB Olympic qualifying event in May 2016 will provide 26 boxers with the chance to secure a spot at the Games, following the completion of the APB and WSB competitions which will see 20 places go to the champion and challenger in each weight category of the APB world ranking, while 17 places are up for grabs in the WSB ranking with the top boxer in each class going to Rio 2016.

Twenty-three boxers will secure places in Rio at next year's World Championships in the Qatari capital of Doha.

On the women's side, AIBA has confirmed to insidethegames that the four continental qualifying events will run alongside the men's tournaments at the same time and same venue.

There will be 20 women's places allocated for Rio 2016 at these four tournaments in the flyweight, lightweight and middleweight categories.

AIBA has confirmed that the women's Rio 2016 Olympic qualification events will run alongside the men's events ©Getty Images



"The International Boxing Association is delighted with its qualification system for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games," an AIBA spokesman told insidethegames.

"For the first time in history, the pathway will offer no less than six different opportunities for AIBA men boxers and five for AIBA women boxers to qualify for the competition.

"AIBA believes that this is a unique opportunity for all boxers who dream of participating in the Olympic Games to get a fair chance to qualify.

"We are now looking for motivated and experienced hosts for all of these events which will represent milestones in the history of boxing."

National federations are also being invited to bid for hosting rights to the 2016 Women's World Boxing Championships, which will be the ninth edition of the tournament.

The top four boxers in each weight category at this tournament will also make it to Rio.

This year's Women's World Boxing Championships are due to take place in Jeju City, South Korea, in November after original hosts Canada pulled out because they could not find a suitable venue.

The 2015 Women's Junior/Youth World Boxing Championships and the Junior World Boxing Championships are also part of the latest round of bidding.

AIBA has sent the bidding documents to all 195 member federations who have until June 30 to submit their completed bidding file to the world governing body.

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