‘The judging system can never become a scapegoat for boxers and coaches who perform disappointingly in the ring and display inappropriate behaviour. This will be even more closely monitored in the future and firm disciplinary action will be taken’

All 36 referees and judges used at the Rio Olympics boxing competitions 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 yesterday.
 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 (pic) said, after top officials held talks in Lausanne this week to discuss how to avoid more controversy when Olympic boxing takes centrestage 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 banned 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”.
 “The results of a specific R&J (referees and judges) investigation, currently underway, will allow AIBA to fully assess what action needs to be taken,” it said in a statement. “In the mean time, it has been decided that all 36 R&Js that were used at the Olympic Games will not officiate at any AIBA event until the investigation reaches its conclusion.”
 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.
 That means no return to the punch-counting method used at some previous Olympics that also threw up numerous scandals, although the AIBA will make some subtle tweaks in an effort to make scoring more transparent and says it will help fighters and coaches to better understand how bouts are scored.
 “As a governing body, AIBA will always seek to evolve the sport but will continue to refute unsubstantiated claims that have tarnished the reputation of our sport,” the statement added.
“The judging system can never become a scapegoat for boxers and coaches who perform disappointingly in the ring and display inappropriate behaviour or comments to media. This will be even more closely monitored in the future and firm disciplinary action will be taken when necessary.”
 Ireland’s world bantamweight champion Michael Conlan was one of the most vociferous critics of the judging in Rio, calling AIBA “cheats” after he was controversially beaten on points by Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin in a quarter-final bout.
 AIBA dropped a number of unidentified judges and referees during the competition, after finding that “less than a handful” of the decisions from 239 bouts reviewed were not at the level expected. It also reassigned its French executive director Karim Bouzidi to a new role.
 AIBA said its Referees&Judges and Technical&Rules commissions had met in Lausanne to discuss reforms and a ‘road map’ for the next Olympic cycle leading to the 2020 Tokyo Games.
 AIBA said that although the scoring system occasionally led to ‘misunderstandings’, it remained the best method. However, the commission had recommended in future opening up all five of the ringside judges’ scorecards to determine the winner of the bout.
 In Rio, the scores of only three judges were counted after being chosen at
random by a computer. The boxing body also recommended that, for greater transparency, the assignation of judges and referees for each bout be automated rather than chosen by a three-person draw
commission.