Roy Jones: Corrupt officials killing Olympic boxing
LONDON – Roy Jones Jr. is the poster child for Olympic boxing reform.
He thinks it is time to take down the poster.
Jones — victim of the most egregious gold medal heist in Games history nearly a quarter of a century ago — told USA TODAY Sports on Friday that he thinks the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) decision to change to a computerized scoring model in response to his outrageous rip-off backfired on the world sanctioning body, beginning with the Barcelona Games in 1992.
"When they did that wrong to me, instead of facing reality — and changing what needed to be changed — they went around the real problem," Jones said in a trans-Atlantic phone call. "And then they made a problem out of something that wasn't a problem — it wasn't the scoring system!
"When they changed the scoring, I quit (watching). I said, 'That's it for me.' The scoring system is ridiculous.
That's why I won't watch it. And I am saddened by it."
The fast-talking former world heavyweight and light heavyweight champion became more animated as he dissected what he thinks is at the heart of the sport's diminished appeal to advertisers and networks such as NBC, which has dramatically curtailed live Olympic coverage of the sport.
"Boxing has continued to go downhill; they ruined the integrity of the sport," Jones said. "That was a calculated plot (to award the gold to his South Korean opponent). They did something bad to our sport. But then they didn't try to fix it. Scoring wasn't the (issue); corrupt officials (were). If they had done what they were supposed to do, we wouldn't have this problem today."
The major cause for the major scoring-system modification came after the embarrassing Jones' fiasco. The International Olympic Committee did more than just rattle a few sabers at the AIBA. The IOC let it be known it was prepared to eliminate the sport from the Games, if need be.
Nevertheless, controversy continued to throw haymakers in the direction of Olympic organizers. To this day, when it comes to allegations of chicanery, Olympic boxing disgracefully is perched atop the medals stand.
The London Games are no different. That is why there are renewed calls by some, mostly in the news media, for the IOC to finally give Olympic boxing the so-called "death penalty."
But Jones said it was possible to weed out corrupt officials, which he said was the real problem.
"Suspend them once," if they are caught pulling shenanigans, "but if they get caught up in another scandal, ban them for life."
This week, bizarre ring decisions in London left some wondering about potential sinister motives regarding two referees.
After a bout involving boxers from Azerbaijan and Japan, AIBA expelled Turkmenistan referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov because he somehow missed six knockdowns registered by Japanese bantamweight Satoshi Shimizu. His Azerbaijan opponent, Magomed Abdulhamidov, won a 20-17 decision that was overturned on appeal because the bout should have been halted after three knockdowns.
AIBA also fired a technical official.
Last year, the BBC reported that Azerbaijan, host of the 2011 World Championships, "loaned" AIBA the princely sum of $10 million. The payback: two Olympic gold medals in boxing, the BBC reported.
Additionally this week, AIBA suspended a German referee for five days after it appeared he improperly disqualified a boxer, Iranian heavyweight Ali Mazaheri, who later cried "fix."
"It was a setup," Mazaheri told news reporters.
Yet, on Friday, the IOC said it was "satisfied" regarding AIBA's handling of possible concerns relating to corruption.
"They have moved to make it very transparent," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
"You can't fix a gold medal."
Try telling Roy Jones Jr.
A breathtaking boxer with natural gifts of hand and foot speed, Jones landed nearly three times as many punches as his opponent — in this case, the host nation's Park Si-Hun.
Nearly a decade after the ring travesty, an IOC investigation found that South Korean officials bribed all three judges. Jones never received his gold because the IOC stood by the official ring decision.
"I still care about (being denied a gold medal) because, to me, what's the use of having a justice system if you are not going to use it?" Jones said.
To this day, Jones is not sure of the location of his silver medal.
In theory, the computerized system was designed to eliminate subjectivity, but it remains possibly more flawed than objective scoring.
Overall, three major factors appear to contribute to the devolvement of Olympic boxing: judging incompetence; perhaps to a lesser degree, corruption; and, finally and perhaps most important, a convoluted scoring system that lends itself to the sort of ring injustice that was inflicted Thursday on Cuba super heavyweight Erislandy Savon.
The 22-year-old nephew of former Olympic gold medalist Felix Savon appeared to outclass Great Britain's Anthony Joshua but lost a 17-16 decision despite the Cuban winning most of the individual round scores.
Confusion continues to reign — for boxers, coaches, officials and fans. Among the changes made for London from the 2008 Beijing Games:
•The one-second window for the three judges to tap their buttons in order to register a scoring blow was eliminated.
•No running score is kept, only running time.
•The system is based on the individual score of each boxer.
•Individual scores of each judge are displayed during the break.
Under the previous system, three of five judges needed to tap their buttons for a scoring blow to count as a point. Now, the system counts all registered punches under a 10-point system, with the score based on an average of three of five judges' tallies.
Go figure.
Meanwhile, the scientific art of body punching continues to remain relegated to the scrap heap of Olympic boxing history.
Light flyweight Carlos Suarez of Trinidad and Tobago said it best this week after losing a lopsided 16-6 decision to Ferhat Pehlivan of Turkey.
"It's not boxing," Suarez said. "It's tag."
Francesco Damiani, coach of the Italian team, knows a little bit about boxing from amateur and professional perspectives. He was an Olympian in the 1980 Moscow Games. In 1982, he defeated elite Cuban super heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson in the World Championships.
He offered solutions Friday after watching his flyweight, Vincenzo Picardi, lose a heartbreaking 17-16 decision to Tugstsogt Nyambayar of Mongolia.
"The first problem is the scoring system," he said through an interpreter. "Get off the machine already and go back to the judges' (original system)."
Secondly, he said, "Take off the headgear."
"Without it, you can see the boxer — the headgear hides them," he said. "It's not just the number of punches, it should be the quality — the power — of them."
Fortunately, the revised computerized scoring system for London that has produced non-stop carping is destined for the rubbish heap with the Rio Games in 2016.
More modifications designed at restoring the sport's popularity in the Games are in store, too — including pro-style judging and the possibility that headgear will be eliminated, which might lead to the introduction of professional fighters.
Meantime, Jones will continue his boycott.
He does not watch Olympic boxing.
He thinks it is time to take down the poster.
Jones — victim of the most egregious gold medal heist in Games history nearly a quarter of a century ago — told USA TODAY Sports on Friday that he thinks the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) decision to change to a computerized scoring model in response to his outrageous rip-off backfired on the world sanctioning body, beginning with the Barcelona Games in 1992.
"When they did that wrong to me, instead of facing reality — and changing what needed to be changed — they went around the real problem," Jones said in a trans-Atlantic phone call. "And then they made a problem out of something that wasn't a problem — it wasn't the scoring system!
"When they changed the scoring, I quit (watching). I said, 'That's it for me.' The scoring system is ridiculous.
That's why I won't watch it. And I am saddened by it."
The fast-talking former world heavyweight and light heavyweight champion became more animated as he dissected what he thinks is at the heart of the sport's diminished appeal to advertisers and networks such as NBC, which has dramatically curtailed live Olympic coverage of the sport.
"Boxing has continued to go downhill; they ruined the integrity of the sport," Jones said. "That was a calculated plot (to award the gold to his South Korean opponent). They did something bad to our sport. But then they didn't try to fix it. Scoring wasn't the (issue); corrupt officials (were). If they had done what they were supposed to do, we wouldn't have this problem today."
The major cause for the major scoring-system modification came after the embarrassing Jones' fiasco. The International Olympic Committee did more than just rattle a few sabers at the AIBA. The IOC let it be known it was prepared to eliminate the sport from the Games, if need be.
Nevertheless, controversy continued to throw haymakers in the direction of Olympic organizers. To this day, when it comes to allegations of chicanery, Olympic boxing disgracefully is perched atop the medals stand.
The London Games are no different. That is why there are renewed calls by some, mostly in the news media, for the IOC to finally give Olympic boxing the so-called "death penalty."
But Jones said it was possible to weed out corrupt officials, which he said was the real problem.
"Suspend them once," if they are caught pulling shenanigans, "but if they get caught up in another scandal, ban them for life."
This week, bizarre ring decisions in London left some wondering about potential sinister motives regarding two referees.
After a bout involving boxers from Azerbaijan and Japan, AIBA expelled Turkmenistan referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov because he somehow missed six knockdowns registered by Japanese bantamweight Satoshi Shimizu. His Azerbaijan opponent, Magomed Abdulhamidov, won a 20-17 decision that was overturned on appeal because the bout should have been halted after three knockdowns.
AIBA also fired a technical official.
Last year, the BBC reported that Azerbaijan, host of the 2011 World Championships, "loaned" AIBA the princely sum of $10 million. The payback: two Olympic gold medals in boxing, the BBC reported.
Additionally this week, AIBA suspended a German referee for five days after it appeared he improperly disqualified a boxer, Iranian heavyweight Ali Mazaheri, who later cried "fix."
"It was a setup," Mazaheri told news reporters.
Yet, on Friday, the IOC said it was "satisfied" regarding AIBA's handling of possible concerns relating to corruption.
"They have moved to make it very transparent," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
"You can't fix a gold medal."
Try telling Roy Jones Jr.
A breathtaking boxer with natural gifts of hand and foot speed, Jones landed nearly three times as many punches as his opponent — in this case, the host nation's Park Si-Hun.
Nearly a decade after the ring travesty, an IOC investigation found that South Korean officials bribed all three judges. Jones never received his gold because the IOC stood by the official ring decision.
"I still care about (being denied a gold medal) because, to me, what's the use of having a justice system if you are not going to use it?" Jones said.
To this day, Jones is not sure of the location of his silver medal.
In theory, the computerized system was designed to eliminate subjectivity, but it remains possibly more flawed than objective scoring.
Overall, three major factors appear to contribute to the devolvement of Olympic boxing: judging incompetence; perhaps to a lesser degree, corruption; and, finally and perhaps most important, a convoluted scoring system that lends itself to the sort of ring injustice that was inflicted Thursday on Cuba super heavyweight Erislandy Savon.
The 22-year-old nephew of former Olympic gold medalist Felix Savon appeared to outclass Great Britain's Anthony Joshua but lost a 17-16 decision despite the Cuban winning most of the individual round scores.
Confusion continues to reign — for boxers, coaches, officials and fans. Among the changes made for London from the 2008 Beijing Games:
•The one-second window for the three judges to tap their buttons in order to register a scoring blow was eliminated.
•No running score is kept, only running time.
•The system is based on the individual score of each boxer.
•Individual scores of each judge are displayed during the break.
Under the previous system, three of five judges needed to tap their buttons for a scoring blow to count as a point. Now, the system counts all registered punches under a 10-point system, with the score based on an average of three of five judges' tallies.
Go figure.
Meanwhile, the scientific art of body punching continues to remain relegated to the scrap heap of Olympic boxing history.
Light flyweight Carlos Suarez of Trinidad and Tobago said it best this week after losing a lopsided 16-6 decision to Ferhat Pehlivan of Turkey.
"It's not boxing," Suarez said. "It's tag."
Francesco Damiani, coach of the Italian team, knows a little bit about boxing from amateur and professional perspectives. He was an Olympian in the 1980 Moscow Games. In 1982, he defeated elite Cuban super heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson in the World Championships.
He offered solutions Friday after watching his flyweight, Vincenzo Picardi, lose a heartbreaking 17-16 decision to Tugstsogt Nyambayar of Mongolia.
"The first problem is the scoring system," he said through an interpreter. "Get off the machine already and go back to the judges' (original system)."
Secondly, he said, "Take off the headgear."
"Without it, you can see the boxer — the headgear hides them," he said. "It's not just the number of punches, it should be the quality — the power — of them."
Fortunately, the revised computerized scoring system for London that has produced non-stop carping is destined for the rubbish heap with the Rio Games in 2016.
More modifications designed at restoring the sport's popularity in the Games are in store, too — including pro-style judging and the possibility that headgear will be eliminated, which might lead to the introduction of professional fighters.
Meantime, Jones will continue his boycott.
He does not watch Olympic boxing.
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