The IOC Executive Board decided to remove the two events in order to make way for two additional female ones.

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) had been hoping to add the extra female events and only sacrifice men's quotas rather than actual medal events.

It is up to AIBA to propose exactly which men's events will be cut from the programme.

At London 2012 and Rio 2016, there were 10 men’s and three women’s categories.

As things stand, when the Games take place in Tokyo in three years’ time there will be eight men’s and five women’s divisions.

Falcinelli said he is "very happy" to have two more women’s categories, pointing out that it was "our old request to the IOC in order to recognise the growing number of women who practice boxing worldwide".

But in order to respect gender equality, the Italian believes the IOC "cannot penalise the male weight classes".

"In 2012 and 2016 there were 10 men’s categories," Falcinelli said.

"Now, the IOC proposes to reduce male Olympic boxing, which is practised in more than 200 countries worldwide, to eight categories.

"We have to pay attention to an important aspect; the reduction of interest of TV viewers and media.

"The audience for women's boxing is very low up to now.

"If the popularity of boxing for media and viewers falls, there is a risk that we will lose important funding from the IOC.

"The further reduction of 44 male boxers in favour of women boxers is too heavy for the boxing numbers worldwide.

"If the IOC intends to keep its determination, with great sacrifice, we can reduce only one men’s category."

Falcinelli suggested that the men’s light flyweight category could be the one to be sacrificed, claiming that it usually has the least boxers and "most of them have a difficult time reducing their weight".

His proposal for the 286 Olympic spots is to have five categories of 12 female boxers, nine categories of 24 male boxers and 10 places going to the host country and wildcards.

Falcinelli recognises, however, that that would still mean four women’s boxers in each category would have the chance to reach the podium by winning just one bout, as was the case at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

He has, therefore, proposed that there should be only one bronze medal available in each of the women’s categories, meaning beaten semi-finalists would go head-to-head in a battle to round out the podium rather than sharing it.

This proposal would be made up of eight categories of eight female boxers, nine categories of 24 male boxers and six places going to the host country and wildcards.

"Doing this, we will ensure gender equality and the high-technical quality of women boxers," Falcinelli said.

Falcinelli has encouraged others to let him know about his thinking and his proposals by e-mailing [email protected].

Falcinelli was one of the ringleaders earlier this week at a meeting of the AIBA Executive Committee where there was an attempt to force President C K Wu to resign.

The loss of male weight categories for Tokyo 2020 is believed to be one of the reasons behind the dissatisfaction about Wu's leadership.

An "Interim Management Committee" has been set up by a group including Falcinelli and Wales' Terry Smith and Canada's Pat Fiacco.

Yesterday members of AIBA staff were unable to enter their offices at the Maison du Sport International, the home of several International Federations, in Lausanne.

Police were called to eject rival factions. 

Swiss authorities are currently ruling over who is the rightful owner of the building.

A verdict is expected later this week.