RIO DE JANEIRO — Olympic boxing's governing body has removed some judges and referees from the Rio Games after a controversy over fight decisions.
The International Boxing Association (AIBA) said in a statement that it had reviewed all decisions in the 239 bouts to date and found "less than a handful" were not at the level expected.
"The concerned referees and judges will no longer officiate at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games," it said, adding that the results of all bouts would stand.
It did not name any of the dropped officials.
The judging was thrown into the spotlight this week when Irish and US boxers protested they had been 'robbed' in quarterfinal fights.
Irish world champion bantamweight Michael Conlan went on an expletive-laden rant on live television after losing to Russian Vladimir Nikitin.
He told reporters he would never fight again in any AIBA-organized competition and sent a message to the official Twitter channel of Russian president Vladimir Putin saying: "Hey Vlad. How much did they charge you bro?".
US coach Billy Walsh, who is Irish, joined in the criticism after his light-welterweight Gary Russell missed out on a medal when a split decision went to Uzbekistan's Fazliddin Gaibnazarov.
"The judging has been atrocious," he told reporters. "The last time I saw it as bad was in Seoul in 1988 when Roy Jones got robbed in the final."
Questions were also raised after Russian Evgeny Tishchenko won the heavyweight gold to boos from the crowd that clearly felt Kazakh opponent Vasily Levit had done more.
AIBA said it would use legal and disciplinary means to protect the reputation of the sport and of its referees and judges "whose integrity is constantly put into question".
"The organization will not be deterred by subjective judgments made by discontented parties," it added.
"We welcome all parties to come forward and provide evidence in order to take appropriate and immediate action."
Scoring systems in Olympic boxing have long provoked controversy, and allegations of underhand activity.
The biggest and most blatant injustice was the decision against light-middleweight Jones, who lost the gold medal fight at the Seoul Games to home fighter Park Si-hun after dominating the fight.
The scoring system was changed in 1989 to a computerized system, with judges pushing a button whenever a scoring punch was made.
That too proved controversial, with US light-flyweight favorite Eric Griffin losing out to local man Rafael Lozano in Barcelona in 1992 because the judges had not reacted fast enough to register many of his blows.
The computerized system was replaced for Rio with a professional style 10-point system.
That has not eliminated suspicion, however, with Britain's Guardian newspaper reporting this month that there were fears within the sport that some bouts could be fixed.
