“Following recent judging decisions and after carrying out a thorough examination by the relevant Commission, AIBA has chose to take immediate and appropriate action”, AIBA said in a statement.
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Tempers calmed on Thursday, when Nikitin withdrew from the semi-finals due to injury, and associate US men’s team coach Kay Koroma told reporters that the judges were also coming to terms with change.
Lochte and three teammates said they were held up at gunpoint in a taxi as they returned to the athletes village from a party, several hours after the last Olympic swimming events were held.
The Guardian revealed exclusively on the eve of the Games the fears of senior officials within the sport that some of the bouts in Rio would be corrupted, alleging a group of referees and judges got together before major championships to decide who would win.
Nikitin also won a disputed decision over Thailand’s Chatchai Butdee before taking on Conlan.
Less than 48 hours on from Michael Conlan’s controversial elimination from Rio 2016, the sense of heartbreak and injustice for the Irish boxer remains palpable.
“AIBA cheats”, Conlan said. The results of all bouts will stand, however. Conlan was seen raising his middle finger in the directions of the Olympic judges that presided over the match. You sit a few guys down to look at any fight, and they might all come up with a different decision and interpretation of it.
“I saw your fight in Rio and you should have won because you are the best boxer in the world”, they said. They’re cheating bastards who are paying everybody.
Among other contentious bouts were the Russian heavyweight Tishchenko’s heavyweight gold medal bout victory over Kazakhstan’s Vassiliy Levit and the Amercian Gary Antuanne Russell’s loss in his light middleweight quarter-final to Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Gaibnazarov.
AIBA says that according to its new rules boxers can not appeal the decisions and that all results will stand. Conlan took to Twitter to express his disapproval of the action of sending the judges home that is of little outcome to the boxers themselves. “I don’t give a [expletive] that I’m cursing on TV”.
AIBA touched on Conlan’s claims in its statement, asking for proof of corruption.
Speaking on Off The Ball, the Irishman admitted he is still hugely disappointed following his controversial defeat to Russian Vladimir Nikitin but hopes his strong comments in the immediate aftermath of the fight will open the eyes of the world to “corruption in amateur boxing”.
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“The organization will not be deterred by subjective judgments made by discontented parties”, it added.
