Olympic boxing judges sacked amidst corruption allegations

The International Boxing Association has removed multiple judges from being able to moderate any more boxing matches at this year’s Olympics.

Multiple fights with questionable outcomes at the Olympics have prompted a hasty change, as the biggest blowup at these Rio Olympic Games led to an immediate change.

This comes in the wake of Irish boxer Michael Conlan’s curse-laden protest over his stunning defeat on Tuesday to Vladimir Nikitin,

The International Boxing Association sent home an unspecified number of referees and judges after a review found that “less than a handful of the decisions were not at the level expected,” the governing body announced in a statement on Wednesday.

Michael Conlan gave a piece of his mind to the boxing judges on Tuesday. Conlan was convinced he defeated Nikitin, a Russian, but the decision went 3-0 against him. Immediately after, Conlan accused the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) of being on the take.

“AIBA are cheats, they’re f—— cheats,” Conlan said on Tuesday.

“Sorry about [the cursing], but that’s me. I’ll never box for AIBA again. They’re cheating bastards, they’re paying everybody. And I don’t give a f— I’m cursing on TV. [Unintelligible] My chance at Olympic gold is over. My dream’s been shattered now. But you know what? I’ve got a big career ahead of me and these, they’re known for being cheats. They’ll always be cheats. Amateur boxing stinks — from the core right to the top.”

The decision in the Conlan-Nikitin fight was criticized widely by the boxing press. And his fight wasn’t the only one with controversy.

American Gary Russell lost to Fazliddin Gaibnazarov of Uzbekistan, a result that prompted Floyd Mayweather to say Russell was “robbed” of the win.

Russell’s coach then said the judging for boxing at the Rio Games hasn’t been this bad since 1988, when Roy Jones Jr. was infamously denied a gold medal based on an archaic scoring system.

The number of judges — and the names — have not been released by AIBA.

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