LAUSANNE — All 36 referees and judges used at the Rio Olympic boxing have been removed for the time being as the sport’s amateur governing body investigates the officiating which overshadowed the action in the ring, it said Thursday.
Several beaten fighters in Rio alleged they had been the victim of poor or even corrupt judging at the August Olympics and the International Boxing Association (AIBA) sent home an undisclosed number of referees and judges at the time, while strenuously denying claims of corruption and threatening legal action. “Rio 2016 was a watershed moment for AIBA. Boxing was in the spotlight for positive reasons, but occasionally also for the wrong ones,” AIBA President Wu Ching-Kuo said, after top officials held talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, this week to discuss how to avoid more controversy when Olympic boxing takes center stage once more in Tokyo in 2020.
In Rio professional fighters took part at an Olympics for the first time — in the event only three made it — and AIBA also binned headguards for men boxers, both part of moves to make Games boxing closer to the pro fight game and thus more attractive to the public.
The AIBA said these reforms had enjoyed a “seamless integration,” but admitted that “a small number of decisions under debate indicated that further reforms... were necessary.”
Despite the judging controversies the AIBA said it would stick with the “10-point must system” of scoring bouts based on the same method of scoring professional fights.
‘Fury dragging boxing through the mud’
Wladimir Klitschko has accused world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury of throwing boxing into disrepute after the Briton twice called off a fight against the Ukrainian, briefly retired from the sport and admitted to substance abuse.
Fury, WBA and WBO champion, had been due to defend his titles against Klitschko in July but pulled out with an ankle injury.
The fight was then rescheduled for this month but postponed again due to an unspecified medical condition, with Fury making further headlines by telling Rolling Stone magazine he had taken to drinking and cocaine to deal with depression.
“Fury is dragging boxing through the mud,” Klitschko told Bild newspaper Thursday.
“This just shows how unfair Fury is,” Klitschko’s manager Bernd Boente told the newspaper. “He stalls with Wladimir. He blocks the world title.”
