AIBA attempts to clean up after controversial decisions

Boxing has been under fire since before the beginning of the 2016 Rio Games, when reports about tainted officials fixing draws and bouts emerged. The allegations came from “horrified senior officials from within the sport” who feared that a ‘cabal of officials’ would manipulate both the draws and the judging system in order to have selected boxers win, wrote The Guardian on 1 August. 

These worries were echoed after a number of boxers had publically questioned the judgements made in their competitions, and a senior AIBA official called for intervention from the IOC and for the AIBA president CK Wu and the rest of the AIBA top to resign:

“As predicted, the corruption is alive and well and the decisions speak for themselves. It is clear that AIBA will not do anything about this. It is time now for the IOC to step in,” said the official, according to The Guardian. “President Wu needs to resign, as well as the executive director and the senior staff.”

AIBA has now reacted to the accusations by reviewing all the decisions in Rio and reached the decision "that less than a handful of the decisions were not at the level expected and consequently it has been decided in accordance with the AIBA R&J evaluation committee that the concerned referees and judges will no longer officiate at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In accordance with AIBA Rules the result of all the bouts will stand,” an AIBA statement issued on Wednesday 17 August said.

Regarding the allegations of corrupt officiating, AIBA said:

“With regard to corruption, we would like to strongly restate that unless tangible proof is put forward, not rumours, we will continue to use any means, including legal or disciplinary actions to protect our sport and its R&J community whose integrity is constantly put into question.”