Russian boxer Vladimir Nikitin got a controversial win by decision over world champion Michael Conlan to advance to the bantamweight semifinal, but won’t face US prospect Shakur Stevenson after all.
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On Monday, the crowd jeered when another Russian fighter, Evgeny Tishchenko, was awarded a unanimous decision over Vassiliy Levit of Kazakhstan, who appeared to have won the bout handily. The Frenchman is also the CEO of the World Series of Boxing, a team-based professional league run by AIBA.
Former Irish boxing judge Kelly told the Guardian newspaper that he had previously been asked to cheat by indicating who was winning during the fight.
The International Boxing Association (AIBA) said in a statement that it had reviewed all decisions in the 239 bouts to date and found “less than a handful” were not at the level expected.
AIBA picks its Olympic referees and judges from a pool of 36 men and women.
But although Aiba said it was committed to ensuring “a level playing field” and “fair and transparent sport”, it would not say why its most senior executive was being “reassigned immediately to a new role within the organisation” or even name him in the release. “It is of paramount importance to protect our sport and its R&J community whose integrity has been put into question”.
As a result, “It has been decided by the AIBA R and J (referees and judges) commission that the concerned referees and judges will no longer officiate at the Rio 2016 Olympics”.
An unspecified number of boxing judges have been dropped from officiating at the Olympics here following the huge criticism of decisions made over the last two days.
The 33-year-old from Leeds faces Sarah Ouhramoune in the flyweight final on tomorrow, after the French veteran saw off Colombia’s Victoria Valencia by split decision.
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.
Mexico’s Misael Rodriguez and Azerbaijan’s Kamran Shakhsuvarly get the bronze medals.
American boxer Shakur Stevenson will fight in the Olympic bantamweight gold medal bout after his semifinal opponent was ruled out with an injury.
Booting the Olympic boxing judges is widely seen as a way for AIBA to acknowledge the controversy caused by what many view as match fixing without having to come right out and admit their judges were crooked.
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AIBA declined to say which bouts were among the “handful” cited as their basis for removing the unnamed referees and judges.
