By Jake Donovan
Teofimo Lopez tried to warn media on site and viewers at home that corruption was alive and well, both in the 2016 Rio Olympics and within the International Boxing Association (AIBA), which oversees amateur boxing around the globe. The boxer from New York – who was representing Honduras in this year’s competition – landed on the very wrong end of a strangely scored points loss to France’s Sofiane Oumiha in welterweight Round of 32 action.
Little was thought of the verdict, other than any debate over the call being dismissed as it just being another day in boxing, a world where corruption and controversy have long ago become accepted as occupational hazards.
Lopez didn’t at all hold back in post-fight interviews, suggesting in Spanish and even a little bit of English that nothing has changed. AIBA is still massively corrupt, and little had been to clean up the mess that had come from Olympics past, particularly London 2012 which resulted in a massive overhaul at the executive level, along with two official verdicts overturned.
The quotes never really made their way to mainstream media save for a couple of stray stories picked up through the AP wire, thus never becoming a storyline at a time when the sports world needed to pay attention. It never made its way to a network executive at NBC, the parent company presenting exclusive Olympiad XXXI coverage in the United States, simply because such comments were of little-to-no use being that boxing would only be offered 30 minutes at a time via tape-delay.
Instead, AIBA wanted to reiterate – via statements through its press office and a conference call with the NBC staff (disclosure: the author of this story has been working as a statistician for NBC Sports) – its intention to present a far more positive experience for its viewers than was the case in 2012.
The concern from four years ago was obviously taking measures to clear up the blatant corruption, but also to avoid a repeat of on-air negative commentary that came from the vocal pipes of Bob Papa and specifically expert analyst Teddy Atlas. With that came the insistence that the dirt from 2012 has been been scrubbed clean, and that a positive spin needs to be at the forefront throughout the competition, except of course in the event blatant incompetence or corruption should surface.
This being boxing, the odds were strong that it would eventually happen.
It wasn’t until the competition’s first Gold medal fight when it was decided that everyone needed to take a stand. By the time Kazakhstan’s Vassiliy Levit was horrifically robbed of a decision win – and Olympic Gold – versus Russia’s Evgeny Tishchenko – the damage was already done. No fewer than eight bouts featured questionable officiating, from knockdowns that were dismissed by referees to judges’ scorecards that simply didn’t make sense.
Sadly, the day began with Katie Taylor – the defending 2012 Lightweight Olympic Gold medalist representing a suddenly beleaguered Ireland boxing program – suffering a questionable upset in a split decision loss to Finland’s Mira Potkonen. Few agreed with the verdict, but it wasn’t until the final call in Tishchenko-Levit when the majority of viewers realized that little – if anything at all – had actually changed.
As Tishchenko’s arm was raised in victory, the horrible call was attempted to have been passed off as the first major blunder in what was an otherwise massive improvement from the 2012 Games. It was a fair assessment when viewing both competitions as a whole – except that the 2012 London Olympics were viewed as a whole while the majority of the 2016 Rio Olympics had barely reached the halfway point.
Barely 16 hours later, AIBA officials were still scrambling for answers to a sea of questions from incoming media and irate viewers when two more controversial verdicts stood out from Day 11 of competition. The most notable of the lot was top-seeded bantamweight Michael Conlan from Ireland devastated over suffering a points loss to Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin – infamous for Conlan’s in-ring protest, complete with his “flipping the bird” to AIBA officials, his profanity-filled post-fight rant and social media allegations questioning how much Russia president Vladimir Putin paid AIBA to “purchase” some of the questionable decisions.
The verdict stood out because it marked the second straight controversial decision of which a Russian boxer was the benefactor. Equally as questionable was Uzbeksitan’s Fazliddin Giabnazarov taking a three-round nod over United States’ Gary Antuanne Russell in their light welterweight quarterfinals matchup.
A win by Russell would’ve ensured the U.S. men’s team at least three medals, which would’ve served as its best haul since 2000. Instead, Giabnazarov remains in contention for a Gold medal following – in a touch of irony – a split decision win on Friday over Russia’s Vitaly Dunaytsev, the #1-ranked light welterweight who dropped to his knees in disbelief over the verdict not going his way.
Giabnazarov was able to coast into the medal round without fear of his tainted win over Russell being overturned. Any threat of that was removed when AIBA decided that an appeal process would no longer be a part of Olympic competition. While questionable judges’ scorecards are rarely reversed, there were two bouts in 2012 where in-ring officiating was cited as grounds to right a terrible wrong, including U.S. welterweight Errol Spence being allowed to advance to the Round of 16 when it was deemed the referee in his bout with India’s Krishan Vikas missed several opportunities to deduct points for numerous fouls committed.
As much was cited in Russell’s controversial loss, as Gaibnazarov was warned by referee Fathi Madfoua for repeated clinches and at times flat out refusal to fight back. Points were never deducted, but honestly didn’t need to be as viewers remained puzzled over the boxer being warned to put up a fight being deemed the winner by day’s end.
Heading into Day 13, AIBA attempted to flex its chest. A press release was issued, stating that an undisclosed number of officials were removed for the remainder of the 2016 Rio Olympics. A demotion at the executive level also came of the investigation, as Karim Bouzidi was reassigned in efforts to ensure “a level playing field and a fair and transparent sport.”
Except that transparency is still sorely lacking with AIBA – and boxing in general.
Even when presented with a potential list of suspended officials, AIBA brass refused to comment. The closest that media would come to confirmation was a smug response claiming that anyone keeping track would likely figure out the officials who hadn’t worked in the days following the investigation.
For the sake of transparency, the following have not worked since then:
Mik Basi (Great Britain)
Rakhymzhan Rysbayev (Kazakhstan)
Vladislav Malyshev (Russia)
Meng Wang (China)
Michael Gallagher (Ireland)
Kheira Sidi Yakoub (Algeria)
Mariusz Gorny (Poland)
Khas-Erdene Khishgee (Mongolia)
Gerardo Poggi (Argentina)
Whether removed due to incompetence, corruption or simply because they were no longer assigned to work any more bouts is not immediately known. Nor can it be said that the following judges were removed for any specific bout(s) in which the officiating was deemed controversial.
The latter would bear the question of why officials who WERE featured in such head-scratching results have remained active in Olympic field. Both judges who had Gaibnazarov beating Russell – Roland Juhasz and Kestutis Bagdanavicius – have regularly worked semifinals and Gold medal bouts over the past few days, as has the referee (Madfoua).
The first bout of Day 13 – the day where sweeping changes were promised to have occurred – featured Armando Carbonell Alvarado, the lone survivor among the officials who worked Tishchenko-Levit. His card was in line with judges Gallagher and Sidi Yakoub, yet neither of the latter two has since been assigned to any Olympic bouts, nor has Poggi, the referee for the Gold medal bout.
Sidi Yakoub managed to work one more high-profile controversy before being removed from the mix, as she was the referee for Nikitin-Conlan. Two of the three judges whose scores were used in the final verdict - Jones Kennedy Silva do Rosario and Udeni Talik Bandara Kiridana – have remained active throughout the balance of the 2016 Olympics, which bears the question of the criteria applied to the aforementioned list of officials removed from competition.
In addition to judges factoring into questionable outcomes are those who’ve managed to fly under the radar, perhaps due to not directly impacting the final verdict.
Judge Clemente Carrillo (Ecuador) has been featured among several disputed decisions this year. His scoring the Women’s Lightweight Gold medal bout 39-37 in favor of China’s Yin Junhua – a bout where a case could be made for eventual winner Estelle Mossely deserving all four rounds – should have to be explained before a disciplinary board prior to working ever again, never mind in any of the seven remaining finals this weekend.
Enrico Licini (Italy) has also seen his name attached to several bouts that have raised eyebrows. It’s worth noting that he was the lone judge who had Russell beating Giabnazarov. On the other side of that, he somehow found a round to score against U.S. women’s middleweight Claressa Shields in Friday’s semifinals versus Kazakhstan’s Dariga Shakimova.
It remains to be seen what fate awaits judges Claus Bedemann, Mykola Karakulov and Jose Bonet, all of whom somehow had France’s Tony Yoka advancing to the Super Heavyweight Gold medal round despite getting thoroughly outworked by Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic.
If history is any indication, it is likely that little if any further disciplinary action will come from the boxing side of Rio 2016 Olympics. The worst offenders have been dealt with – or so we’ve been told – and with the finish line in sight, the primary focus is to just keep the line moving.
Reformation is no longer required since, after all, that’s just boxing for you.
Twitter: @JakeNDaBox_v2
