Another Day, Another Olympic Scandal: Corrupt Boxing Edition
Clearly the guy checking the mat for cracks is winning this fight
Yesterday, we talked about all the missteps that the Olympics had stumbled over so far in these games, highlighted by the four badminton teams who tried to lose intentionally. Well, today is a new day for these Olympic Games, a fresh start, a chance to really show us the best…oh, wait, no, nevermind. Just another scandal, this time in boxing, after Magomed Abdulhamidov of Azerbaijan was awarded the win over Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu 22-17 despite getting knocked down SIX TIMES in the third and final round. That’s not just a little fishy, that’s a beached whale in your living room level of suspicious.
Shimizu sums up the general reaction to the decision pretty well. From BBC:
“I was shocked by the final scores. He fell down so many times,” Shimizu said.
“Why didn’t I win? I don’t understand.”
The crowd didn’t understand either, raining boos down on the ring and the judges who delivered such a ridiculous decision. So how did a boxer who hit the mat half a dozen times in three rounds walk away with a decisive victory? Well, with money, of course! Lots and lots of money.
According to reports from BBC Newsnight last September, there was evidence of Azerbaijan paying millions of dollars fora guarantee of Azerbaijani gold at the London Games. According to documents found by BBC, $9 million had been transferred, funneled through Switzerland, to a boxing organization, Word Series Boxing, which is owned by the AIBA, which oversees Olympic boxing. According to whistleblowers, they weren’t exactly stealthy about it.
“Ivan boasted to a few of us that there was no need to worry about World Series Boxing having the coin to pay its bills. As long as the Azeris got their medals, WSB would have the cash.”
Another said that Mr. Khodabakhsh cam in and said: “We are safe now – Azerbaijan came in – we have to give them medals for that.”
“He was talking gold medals in London in return for millions of dollars of secret payments,” the insider added. “Medals are being sold so blatantly it’s amazing.”
As expected, Azerbaijan denied the allegations, and an AIBA committee found them groundless, calling the $9 million a “purely commercial investment.” Of course, why would a committe within the company receiving a huge payoff dig too deep into allegations of a huge payoff? I’m pretty sure if you looked up “conflict of interest” in the dictionary, a picture of these guys rolling around in money would be right next to it.
But I’m sure the AIBA thought that Azerbaijan would make it easier to slide them through by doing things like “training” and “not being terrible at boxing,” but the guarantee of gold seems to have dulled the drive of Abdulhamidov, at least, as he became one of the few people to get knocked down in Olympic competition, and possibly the only to ever get knocked down six times.
Japan rightfully immediately appealed this decision and thankfully the AIBA did the right thing by upholding it, awarding the bout to Shimuzu. Of course, Abdulhamidov didn’t give them much choice. Their statement:
After reviewing the video of Bout #105 involving Bantamweights Satoshi Shimizu (Japan) and Magomed Abdulhamidov (Azerbaijan), the Competition Jury made the following decision:
-The boxer from Azerbaijan fell down six (6) times during the 3rd round. According to our rules, the Referee should have counted at least three (3) times. In this case, following the AIBA Technical & Competition Rules, the decision should have been RSC (Referee Stop Contest);
-Therefore the protest lodged by the Japanese corner is accepted and the result of this bout overturned.
AIBA official will consider on Thursday morning whether to sanction the referee of this bout.
So, good news? Kind of. The decision to uphold the appeal isn’t because the judges giving the fight to a boxer who clearly didn’t win the fight is a ridiculous decision, it’s because the referee should have stopped the fight. So the AIBA gets their fall-guy (who was likely told not to stop the fight, if the allegations of a payoff are true), and the judges who watched a guy fall down a whole bunch of times and thought, “Yeah, that guy’s our winner,” get off without so much as a slap on the wrist.
Of course, now the AIBA has bigger problems on its hands. Azerbaijan is on line one, and they’d like to discuss their “investment.”
(pic via)
I am disappointed in the Olympics committee. We know corruption is everywhere, but i was hoping that Olympics would still be about athletes who have proven themselves worthy of a gold medal, not money…. Oh well, I guess things are not what they used to be.
It’s unfortunate that the hightest level of sport can’t keep itself out of the gutter when it comes to greed and corruption. I agree 100%
I hope it wouldn’t happen to Mark Barriga of the Philippines who will be fighting against Kazakhstan tomorrow.
Hopefully with the embarrassment of this decision, they’ve wised up and will be on the up-and-up the rest of the way. Fingers crossed for that.
I watched the fight on CNBC and it did. The stupid Kazakh guy kept on committing so many idiotic infractions against Mark Barriga like holding, throwing, etc. I mean this Kazakh guy had more warnings and penalties than he did! Stupid! While Barriga had less and was supposed to win! Boxing judges are idiots. That French Canadian referee ought to get kicked out for good.
It’s hard to imagine what fight the judges are watching sometimes
Go Mark go! And oh yes…go Marj go!
Nice post. Echoes of Evander Holyfield’s “defeat” in the semis of the 1984 Olympics:
Thanks! Yeah, while corruption in boxing isn’t anything new, it’s rare to have them be this blatant about it. Acting like you are still legitimate goes a long a way in preserving the illusion.
Gotta love how it is so easy for the general public to connect the dots, yet all these organizations can’t and aren’t held accountable.
They either think people are too dumb to notice, or they’re too embedded to care.
Who will be next?
Whichever country has Olympic aspirations, loose ethics, and money to burn.
I’m upset this still happens, what is the point in being in the Olympics or sport in general if you’re going to do these sort of things?
It really takes away from the whole ideal of the Olympics and sports in general when stuff like this happens, I agree. It’s the reason boxing is dying to begin with!
Like the blog thanks. Channel 4 news tonight said ‘England are now 3rd in the medal table’ well that
puts us Scots in our place and the Welsh and the Irish.
Hmmmm, interesting article. I need to stay up to date with what’s going on…
A lot of times, there are too many stories to keep up with, especially when you have people coming in from all over the world.
isso é muito complicado
Why am I not surprised? this Olympics has been the most unscrupulous, cash driven pile of garbage ever inflicted on the English people. The stench of graft has permeated every corner of it.
It is clear to me that Olympic boxing is fixed and if they will not change the judges then it is all a joke. and who cares.
Why is my comment waiting moderation. I thought we have free speech.
You do, I do that to prevent spam comments from filling up the comments section. I just needed to get to my computer, sorry for the delay.
Disappointing to see such unfortunate occurrences at the Olympics. Doping is one, and to me that’s entirely personal discretion, but bribing judges at an international stage! Can’t believe all of them are such heartless fellows.
Money is, the root of most evil.
I remember, almost exactly the same thing happened to one of our (Filipino) boxer back in Atlanta. It was a gold turned to gravel
The decision has been overturned in case of another victory of an Indian boxer, reports say! What is happening?
The judges apparently don’t have any eyes on the actual matches. Maybe they have something better to do?
Reminded me of the recent Pacquiao match…
I had flashbacks to that fight as well, going “Um, what?”
Reblogged this on Jaggi.
It is sad to see that 24 years after Seoul the Olympic boxing competition is still a joke where the referees, not the athletes, decide who wins and who loses. But I suppose it is hardly surprising.
Any time you let the action be decided by a third party, you increase the chances of corruption. It’s why so many are so frustrated with sports that are judged
He paid 9 million (I almost spit my coffee out on that number) dollars for a chance for a Gold medal? oi vey!! For $79.99 I’d have made him two..
in all seriousness, the Olympics should be the one sporting event that is corruption-free.. guess not.
For that much, you would think they could have hired a coach to teach their boxers to fight better instead
Great article – it seems that corruption is still rife throughout sport despite the many attempts to stop it. Hopefully this will change someday soon. If you fancy some light Olympics reading, I’ve just posted an Olympics satire piece on my blog, “Review of the Olympic Games, 4024″ http://wp.me/p28REp-5H Keep up the good work!!
Matty
Thank you! An as much as they have tried to stamp out corruption, it sure seems to rear its ugly head every time a big stack of cash gets thrown around (or wired through Switzerland, as the case may be)
Great Post! Bodacious!
It is so sad that money is ruining sports so much that even the Olympics can’t do without corruption… If it continues this way it will end with the ones with the most money wins the medals. I really don’t hope it will come down to this, and that the Olympics Committee will fix the corruption issues as soon as possible, so we won’t have trouble with it in the future.