Sadly it is more likely we shall be hearing the command - stop boxing!

It is becoming increasingly inevitable that a core sport of the Games is facing a KO. 

Already excluded from the programme for Los Angeles 2028 there are now suggestions that it may be removed from the schedule for Paris next year.

The acrimonious differences between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the so-called amateur sports governing body, the International Boxing Association (formerly AIBA) have been well documented.

They cover fiscal, administrative and political matters and remain largely unresolved.

This despite the International Boxing Association (IBA) having clearly reformed and reorganised a body which was previously riddled with corruption.

Bent referees and judges have been booted out, the scoring system simplified, finances put on a more stable footing and young boxers of both sexes being developed through global coaching schemes and their welfare enhanced and protected.

So let’s not bark about the pro proverbial bush. The main outstanding reason for the IOC’s current antipathy towards boxing is that the man who cleaned up its act is a Russian.

As I have written here before I do not know Umar Kremlev and have never met him. 

But what I do know, from what I observe and hear is that the 40-year-old businessman seems to be making a decent fist of the Presidency following the misdemeanours, fiscal and otherwise, of predecessors Dr CK Wu and the even more nefarious Anwar Choudhary, to which the IOC seem to have turned a blind eye.

So he is not everyone’s samovar of tea but I am inclined to agree with insidethegames editor Duncan Mackay, who attended the recent IBA Congress in Armenia where Kremlev was endorsed and acclaimed as President, that he should allowed to get on with the job and judged on results.

This is by no means sidestepping the atrocities that Vladimir Putin has inflicted on Ukraine. But punish Putin, the crazed despotic czar who runs, will surely ruin Russia, not those who play the Games.

Because of Vlad the Invader all Russians are now pariahs. However, I do have some sympathy with their athletes, many of whom I suspect are personally opposed to the actions of the deranged despot and his cohorts in the Kremlin but fear for their lives if they speak out.

Kremlev may be close to Kremlin alphabetically but there is no indication that he is a bosom pal of Putin.

What should be the main concern, in my view, is that he is a thoroughbred boxing man whose actions so far have been been beneficial to the sport.

We hear that a number of nations, led by the US, plan to boycott the forthcoming IBA Men's and Women's World Championships to be held in Tashkent and New Delhi respectively.

This follows Kremlev’s insistence on allowing Russian and Belarus boxers to take part accompanied by their national flag and anthem.

This may be an error of judgement on his part in the present climate but personally I am not greatly in favour of boycotts.

They rarely achieve anything - save in the case of South Africa and the abolition of apartheid, which I did support vehemently.

The pending demise of boxing in the Olympics, is spurred on by the burgeoning woke wing of the IOC who no doubt would like to see it replaced by teqball, korfball or pickleball - any old balls will do.

Surely it is time to stop this nonsensical and brazen attempt to banish the sport and deny young men and women from all over the world to achieve golden gloves glory?

Does Thomas Bach really want to be the man responsible for cancelling the achievements of Olympic legends such as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko, Teofilo Stevenson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Laszlo Papp and Oleksandr Usyk?

If so he can be certain of one thing. Should he be succeeded in 2025 by Lord Sebastian Coe, as many hope and believe, fisticuffs will be back on the Olympic menu.

For the current chief of World Athletics is a long standing aficionado of the noble art.

As for the issue of flags and anthems this could easily be resolved by ditching them.

I bet I’m not alone in thinking the Games would be better off without them, less nationalism, more pride in personal performance.

There’s always the Olympic anthem, but if the taste is for something a little more melodious when taking the stand on the podium why not something from the prolific songmeister himself, Burt Bacharach who died last week, aged 94?

Magic Moments, maybe, or Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head. Though in this world of wokery perhaps this should be changed to Snowflakes Keep Falling On My Head!

Mention of Burt Bacharach brings a memory flashback to 1973 when a small group of us descended on a luxury resort in California where Muhammad Ali was preparing for the first of his titanic trilogy with world title challenger Ken Norton.

After watching Ali work out we decided to go and see Norton who had set up training camp in a place ominously called Massacre Canyon, close to San Jose in the mountains above Los Angeles.

This was in pre-satnav days and we had trouble locating San Jose on the map. While sitting in our car in the driveway from the resort we spied Burt walking from the tennis courts with a lady companion.

One of our number could not refrain from shouting out cheekily: "Hey Mr Bacharach, sorry to ask you this, but do you know he way to San Jose?"

He turned and growled: "You’ve gotta be kidding".

He then broke into a smile as he recognised his inquisitor as the famed boxing writer and TV commentator Reg Gutteridge, whom he knew.

The upshot was that he invited us to tea where Bacharach, a great fight fan, talked boxing for an hour or so.

When we left, we still did not know the way to San Jose - and neither did he!