Fight-fixing probe cites 11 Rio Olympic bouts
ELEVEN bouts at the 2016 Olympic boxing competition, including controversial defeats for Britain’s Joe Joyce and Ireland’s Michael Conlan, are suspected of being manipulated.
The first stage of an independent investigation has looked at how the outcome of bouts may have been influenced by money or political favours. Six-figure sums were involved in some cases, the report said.
Conlan’s bantamweight quarter-final loss to Russian fighter Vladimir Nikitin, described as a ‘close match’, was named.
‘Four judges would be required to vote in favour of a boxer in order to ensure he/she was the winner,’ the report stated. ‘This was the case in the Conlan fight, and may indicate the result was predetermined.’
Bouts fought by France’s Tony Yoka,
who beat Joyce in the super-heavyweight final, were also cited. Joyce could be in line to take the gold if the result is overturned.
Professor Richard McLaren’s report, commissioned by the current leadership of the International Boxing Association (AIBA), accepted it was possible other suspicious bouts had not yet been identified.
The report found judges were often ‘preyed upon by those with corrupt motives’, with McLaren concluding the ‘seeds had been sown’, often years before.
Qualifying events for the Rio Olympics became the practice ground where manipulation methods were ‘ fine-tuned’, the report said.
McLaren said Wu Ching-kuo, the former president of AIBA – handed a lifetime ban from the organisation in 2018 – ‘bears ultimate responsibility for the failures at Rio’.