Comments Thread For: Mikey Garcia: To Drop Boxing From Olympics is Big Mistake

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

World Boxing Council lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs), who`s won championships in four weight divisions, is highlighting to the International Olympic Committee the essential and fundamental importance of keeping amateur boxing in the Olympics, because it forms the bedrock foundation of everything that follows in the professional sphere.
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[Lemonhead_Jeff]

it's one of the signs of the apocalypse!

[Boksfan]

It will kill boxing death.

[Redd Foxx]

I think boxing helps legitimize the Olympics, an event that is declining in popularity.

[RuleOfTheSpear]

a very dumb move. boxing is one of the most lucrative sport. a considerable number of exciting boxers came from the olmypics and started there. it also gave foundation and opportunity to boxers from non-boxing nations

[Boxing Logic]

For a second I thought this said, "Mikey Garcia to drop boxing." I was like, yup, makes sense. Not even surprised.

[ShoulderRoll]

They need to drop corruption from the Olympics, not boxing.

[officermaloy]

Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael and Leon Spinks, Oscar de La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather and ... Anthony Joshua???

Anthony Joshua? Really? I think he doesn't belong to this sentence so far.

[Vae Victis]

The corrupt decisions of the 2012 Olympic Games include at least two of AJ's wins, and that is why boxing must be removed from the Olympics until the sport can be cleansed from such corruption.

[Scopedog]

Removing boxing from the Olympics would be devastating for the sport, as Mikey said the pursuit of Olympic gold kickstarts the careers of many great fighters. Just look at the boxing boom in the UK, that's at least 80% down to the funding of amateur programs, the primary aim of which is securing medals at the Olympics. The gold medal win at London 2012 was the launching point for Anthony Joshua's career. Take away the Olympic medals and the funding will dry up faster than you can snap your fingers, not just in the UK but around the world. Say goodbye to the likes of Usyk and Lomachenko coming through into the paid ranks off of Olympic wins.

I think it'll be bad for the olympics as well, it's one of the events' flagship sports and probably the most intense and action-packed part of the event in my opinion. I know I'd have little reason to watch without it.

However, at the same time the IOC's hands are tied so long as things stay the way they are. At both Rio and London the boxing officials showed appalling corruption and / or incompetence, some fighters got gifts (people will point to AJ as an example but for me the better example is Zou Shiming getting coddled and protected by the referee against a Thai fighter, with about 3 or 4 knockdowns called as slips, with a gift decision to Shiming at the end) while other fighters got screwed over. Add to that the fact that AIBA is a complete mess right now, with leadership disputes, chaos and corruption absolutely infesting it and seemingly destroying it from the inside out.

Of course I don't want the IOC to take boxing out of Tokyo 2020 and I don't think they want to either, but they may have no choice.