It will be in the spotlight again when the Olympics comes to the UK capital in 2012, providing the main arena for a whole list of Olympic and Paralympic sports.

 

A questionmark has arisen, though, over whether boxing – which I reckon could be one of the big stories of London 2012 – will be one of these ExCel sports.

 

There is some prospect as I write that it could migrate west to Wembley Arena.

 

This would be part of a mini-reshuffle whose aim would apparently be to economise on the £15 million-plus cost of a 6,000-seat temporary arena in North Greenwich.

 

The AIBA, the international boxing association, acknowledges the existence of a proposal to move venue, but says it is not entertaining it at this stage because of the travel distance from the Olympic Village.

 

That makes this particular switch sound like a bit of a long shot, although at least one other sport may end up heading west.

 

Either way, we should know for sure quite soon – possibly by the end of this month.

 

We will have to wait a little longer for the answer to another burning question facing Olympic boxing: whether at Wembley or ExCel, will female boxers be competing in London?

 

The AIBA has put forward a proposal to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that includes the introduction of 40 women boxers across five weight categories.

 

This risks falling foul of the IOC’s current cap on the number of sports, events and athletes represented at the Olympics.

 

While I can quite see how such a women’s competition could be accommodated without raising the number of boxers present at the Games from Beijing’s 286, it implies a 40 per cent-plus increase in the number of boxing events from 11 to 16.

 

It is hard to see how the IOC could countenance such a jump while the cap is in place simply because it would be inundated with calls for similar moves from other sports.

 

The body told me this week that it was “unlikely that the number of athletes or events will increase much across all sports”.

 

What I am not clear about is whether, if push came to shove as it probably will, the AIBA would sacrifice any of its 11 men’s events to make room for female boxers.

 

My guess is that the inclusion of women as Olympic boxers would provide the sport with so much global publicity that it probably would opt to trim the men’s programme – though not to the extent of making room for five women’s events.

 

A more likely scenario, I would suggest, is that space is created for two or three new women’s competitions in 2012, one or two by shrinking the men’s programme and one by expanding the overall number of boxing gold medals to 12.

 

Time is getting short, at least for 2012, but if those in charge of the sports programme are prepared to be flexible, I wonder whether a little more wriggle room might be procured via the introduction of bronze-medal bouts.

 

This would enable the sport to argue that it was, in effect, lopping 11 medals (equivalent to 25 per cent of the total) from its men’s requirement, though, of course they would all be of the bronze variety and the move would, in itself, have no impact on the overall number of men’s boxing events.

 

Such bronze-medal bouts would not necessarily increase the number of fights needing to be crammed in if male entrants were restricted to a mathematically convenient 16 per weight, as opposed to 26, which is the present average.

 

The possible arrival of women is not the only reason why I expect boxing to be one of the most high-profile sports in London.

 

I think Britain will have a strong team – in spite of having lost so many of its Beijing squad to the professional ranks.

 

This should ensure plenty of home interest, particularly if the GB medal count is further boosted by the effects of home advantage – something which, as research published recently by UK Sport suggested, boxing appears especially influenced by.

 

The once all-conquering Cuban team should provide another strong story line.

 

Are they in decline, or can they bounce back from their disappointments in China where they could not muster a single gold medal?

 

Actually, one of the great positives of last year’s boxing competition in Beijing was the sheer range of countries that managed to get one or more fighters onto the medals podium.

 

The sport was also allocated a handsome and atmospheric venue which noisy and colourful supporter groups from the likes of Kazakhstan and Ireland regularly made full use of.

 

The negatives from Beijing were some of the judging and, frankly, the calibre of most of the boxing.

 

These are not optional extras and it would be nice to think the AIBA will address both of them prior to London.

 

I would like to see something done to discourage boxers who build an early lead from adopting the understandable tactic of then simply avoiding their opponent.

 

My suggestion would be to pair the highest-scoring winner against the lowest-scoring and so on in the next round of the competition.

 

That would do nothing to alter behaviour in the semi-finals and beyond, but it should make for some livelier early contests.

 

David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering last year's Beijing Olympics