Canadians call out judging

In what’s shaping up to be a long and vicious war, Boxing Canada fired the first salvo at AIBA, the sport’s governing body, on Thursday.

Calling for the reform of AIBA, Boxing Canada issued a statement making public many of the allegations that have appeared in the media during the Olympic boxing tournament.

The statement reads: “Following questionable decisions and alleged corruption claims occurring at the Rio 2016 Boxing competition, a global strategy is being put in place to pressure AIBA into addressing and correcting the situation.

“Boxing Canada strongly believes that the integrity of our sport and athletes must be protected while faced with injustice and we will not tolerate any unfair judgment. Although small measures have been taken by AIBA, combined efforts with our partners will continue until the integrity of boxing is restored and has reached a satisfactory level.’’

On Wednesday, AIBA announced several unnamed judges had been sent home after an internal review ad found their work unsatisfactory. That didn’t go far enough for Boxing Canada, which hopes other countries will join their crusade.

Both before and during the Games, articles reported widespread corruption and fight-fixing in AIBA. The issue came to a head in Rio after a series of controversial decisions, most notably a unanimous decision by Russian Vladimir Nikitin over Ireland’s Michael Conlan in a 56kg fight.

After the fight, Conlan said AIBA is “known to be cheats. Amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top.” Nikitin was battered so badly in the fight he couldn’t make his semifinal bout against American-Shakur Stevenson on Thursday.