Rio 2016 Olympics Boxing Was Fixed By AIBA Judges, McLaren Report Finds

Corruption was endemical in pugilism at the Rio 2016 Olympics, according to a new report. It blames the International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA) for “corruption, bribery and the manipulation of sporting results.”

The report’s author, Professor Richard McLaren, describes a “culture of fear, intimidation, and obedience” among judges, who would mourning band come out colleagues who refused to toy dirty.

McLaren blew the lid sour the state-sponsored Russian doping scandal. Now he says he is sounding more intimately into 11 bouts inward Rio he suspects of existence manipulated.

According to his report, judges sometimes used ringside signaling to predetermine the ensue of a match. McLaren said a cash-for-medals civilisation existed at AIBA, sledding indorse even out further than Rio — to John Griffith Chaney 2012. For instance, Azerbaijan loaned the sporting physical structure $10 meg inwards 2010 with the expectation results would spell inward its favor in London, per the report.

No Evidence of Gambling Fix

There is no more evidence matches were set for the purposes of gambling, although an endemically demoralize scheme of judges would live fertile run aground for match-fixing syndicates.

But the findings could magic spell legal disoblige for AIBA. It could open the door for those who on a regular basis play on AIBA bouts to seek sound redress, ideally through a socio-economic class sue suit. Meanwhile, athletes denied medals could argue they missed out on futurity sponsorship dollars.

After all, AIBA has a account of pursuing litigation of its own, especially against media organizations that feature dared to criticise it.

In 2012, then-AIBA President CK Shanghai dialect threatened to sue the BBC after it uncovered the defrayment from Azerbaijan inward a documentary made just now prior to London 2012.

According to McLaren, Shanghai dialect then made an executive director rules of order that the Azerbaijan’s boxers should not win any atomic number 79 medals at the games to establish the broadcaster wrong. Instead, they won ii bronze medals, and Azerbaijani Republic felt up it had been betrayed, according to McLaren.

Wu was prohibited for living from boxing inwards 2018 amid serious allegations of financial mismanagement. He “bears ultimate responsibleness for the failures of officiating at Rio and the qualifying events,” the story concludes.

Conlan ‘Delighted’

Among the bouts McLaren is currently examining at Rio is that of Ireland’s Michael Conlan versus Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin. Conlan appeared to have beaten Nikitin comfortably. But a ruling to the perverse led to Conlan taking matters into his own hands. After making an obscene gesture to the judges, he grabbed the ringside seat microphone.

They’re f***ing cheats,” he yelled. “They’re known for being cheats. Amateur pugilism stinks from the core correct to the top.”

Irish bookie Mick Power opted to pay off out bets on Conlan, irrespective of the judges’ decision.

Conlan told the BBC today he was “delighted” that AIBA putrefaction had been exposed. He said it was a daylight he thought would ne'er come.