The biggest tournament in amateur boxing remains in danger.
This is not the news I wanted to be reporting. The Amateur International Boxing Association, AIBA, has been in hot water with the International Olympic Committee, IOC, for some time now. In short for those who don’t have much experience with amateur boxing, the IOC runs the Olympics while AIBA runs amateur boxing. During the Olympics, the IOC sanctions AIBA to run the tournament we all know and come to expect some of the sport’s biggest prospects to come out of.
The IOC went on the record in December that it is dissatisfied with AIBA on many levels. The Olympic Committee ordered AIBA to draw up a report detailing their plans to resolve the IOC’s issues in regards to the governance of amateur boxing. The concerns were wide ranging and fair, largely centering around integrity issues. Examples include judging and refereeing problems, financial record keeping, and drug testing. Though the IOC itself has a history of corruption and a lack of integrity, I don’t think any boxing fan would complain if any number of those issues were corrected.
Unfortunately, the report submitted by AIBA at the beginning of this year was not satisfactory. From there, the IOC cut off its very significant payments to the amateur governing body. In that decision they also noted that “the IOC reserves the right to review the inclusion of boxing on the programme of the … Olympic Games [in] Tokyo 2020.” Obviously that is a very ominous threat. The threat was then repeated in July.
How did AIBA respond to the impending danger of losing the one event that justifies and funds their very existence? They made it more likely! Last year former AIBA President C.K. Wu resigned after eleven years when it was made clear he had led the organization to near financial ruin. To fill the void before elections could be held, Uzbeki interim president Gafur Rakhimov was appointed. To his credit, he reportedly righted the ship financially and saved AIBA from bankruptcy.
The problem with Rakhimov is that it is widely believed that he is heavily involved in organized crime. The US Treasury Department even sanctioned him and others for their involvement and leadership in such illegal activity. He has never been charged with anything officially, but this view of his status is the general worldwide consensus. The IOC has very much been on the record that it would not be in AIBA’s interest to elect him permanently for what I think should be obvious reasons.
Of course AIBA being AIBA, they did just that a few days ago. If nothing else can be said about the suicidal decision, it was appropriately comical in execution. The electronic voting booths that were to be used failed last minute. A thrown together voting station was then made by stacking tables and throwing sheets over them for privacy. The hand written votes were then placed in a hotel logo emblazoned bucket. I do believe this is the same set up used for when we elected a class president in third grade.
The vote came back 86 to 48 in the (allegeded!) crime lord’s favor over Serik Konakbayev of Kazakhstan. This probably happened because Konakbayev ran on the absurd platform of wanting to work towards addressing the corruption in the organization to make sure it didn’t get banned from the Olympics. What a fool. Konakbayev says he is going to appeal, however, and he does have the support of English Boxing and the majority of the other powerful European federations for what that is worth. This high drama may still be ongoing.
The IOC meets next on November 30th through December 2nd. The axe on AIBA could come as soon as then. No one is really sure what the IOC is actually going to do though. Boxing is one of the true historical sports in the summer games. Though it isn’t a revenue generator for the Olympics like it was in another life, removing boxing from the event would be a very bold move. One solution would be to cut ties with AIBA, but not boxing. With a year and a half left before Tokyo, it is possible that another body could be created or chosen to run the tournament rather than eliminating it entirely.
We better hope some solution is reached for boxing to be in Tokyo 2020. Look at what it does in generating hype and excitement in the pro game. Oscar De La Hoya would never have been the same star without his Olympic run. Shakur Stevenson wouldn’t be such a highly watched prospect at this early stage without his silver medal. Most importantly right now, imagine Anthony Joshua without his gold medal run at home in London. There is no way the initial level of hype is there for him upon turning pro. It was his success in the ring and Eddie Hearn’s success in playing off that hype that turned AJ into the megastar he is. Beyond him even, who are Guillermo Rigondeaux or Vasyl Lomachenko without two Olympic gold medals each? Great fighters still, I’m sure, but the auras would not be the same.
Please get it together, AIBA.
