IBF president Daryl Peoples said he would look to personally discourage any ranked fighter or titleholder from competing in the Olympics and will discuss whether to enact a punitive measure to deter pros from fighting amateurs, he told RingTV.com on Thursday.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) voted on Wednesday to authorize professionals to participate in the 2016 Olympics in Rio this summer. The decision has come under fire by many who have cited health risks involved with matching an amateur against a seasoned pro.

The WBC announced it would strip any champion of his title or issue a two-year purge from its rankings of any fighter who competes in the Olympics. Peoples isn’t sure if the IBF will adopt something similar, but he’s willing to kick around the idea of some form of punishment.

“We’re going to discuss it,” Peoples told RingTV.com in a phone interview. “There’s probably other ways that we can deal with it within the framework of our existing rules. But we’re certainly going to discourage anybody that we find in the ratings from participating (in the Olympics). I would definitely reach out to that individual or whosever connected with them and I would discourage it.”

Peoples was disappointed in AIBA’s decision, portraying it as shortsighted and reckless. “I’m opposed to it just as the WBC and I think all the organizations are,” Peoples said. “Outside of the obvious skill level – you’re having mature men fighting boys. I just don’t think it was really well thought out. Imagine if (unified light heavyweight champion) Sergey Kovalev wants to do it? These guys are going to get somebody hurt, especially with no head gear and professional style scoring. It’s going to be a disaster.”

Peoples’ comments come on the heels of USA Boxing’s statement on Thursday that it won’t be sending any pros to any of the Olympic qualifying events since there are amateurs already locked into those events. Thus, pros won’t be carrying the flag for the U.S. team in Rio this summer. The USA Boxing team is currently preparing for the next Olympic qualifier June 14-26 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The U.S. was one of four countries to abstain from voting on the AIBA measure.

“USA Boxing’s Olympic Selection procedures, on which our amateur athletes have relied for the past two years, preclude us from making the last minute changes that would be required to invite professionals to compete,” the statement read. “We believe that many other countries face similar difficulties, and in fairness to our athletes who have already been selected to fulfill their Olympic dreams, we abstained from voting for the proposed change of the eligibility rules.”

But that won’t be the case in 2020, predicts Mike Martino, executive director of USA Boxing. Martino can see a scenario in Tokyo 2020 in which nearly all of the participants are professionals with each bout counting against their professional record. The bouts would have to be sanctioned as professional for this to happen, Martino acknowledged.

“That’s what there goal is,” Martino told RingTV.com of AIBA. “Because pros will be included, it’s likely it could end up being a complete professional boxing tournament (by 2020). Could an amateur come in and qualify in a certain weight division? Yes. But it’s highly likely if you have pros in the tournament that those bouts could very likely be identified as professional bouts and would an amateur boxer — this is the question, we don’t know — would an amateur boxer fight with the possibility that he’s going to be subjected to a win or a loss in his professional career?”

Martino said AIBA could always repeal the new rule by 2020 if it deems it necessary.

Mitch Abramson is a former reporter for the New York Daily News and be reached on Twitter at: @Mabramson13.