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Boxing on brink after judging controversies
RIO DE JANEIRO: Bloody and bruised, Olympic boxing was left teetering on the brink of crisis with several fighters complaining they were the victims of bad judging
RIO DE JANEIRO: Bloody and bruised, Olympic boxing was left teetering on the brink of crisis with several fighters complaining they were the victims of bad judging decisions and a few alleging more sinister wrongdoing.
The Games would not be complete without boxing controversy of one kind or another and governing body the AIBA was soon on the defensive in Rio after at least two highly debatable judging decisions, the most contentious being in the heavyweight final. Kazakh Vassiliy Levit appeared to have given Evgeny Tishchenko a thorough hiding, but the judges inexplicably made the Russian a unanimous points winner — he was consequently booed up to the podium.
The next day Irish bantamweight world champion Michael Conlan launched a foul-mouthed tirade at the International Boxing Association (AIBA) saying he had been “robbed” of his Olympic dream.
Conlan was enraged and accused the AIBA and judges of corruption — an allegation immediately rejected by the AIBA, which threatened legal action. But the boxing body then acknowledged that “less than a handful of decisions (were) not at the level expected” and sent home an undisclosed number of judges and referees.
