By Norm Frauenheim–
One obscene gesture continues to sum up the state of Olympic boxing.
No matter what the amateur acronym does in the wake of another scandal-plagued Games and still another investigation, Michael Conlan’s one-finger salute will define it for as long as it is allowed to rule an Olympic sport as ancient as it is legendary.
AIBA announced Thursday that the 36 referees and judges, who worked the Rio Games, are under suspension pending an investigation, according to Reuters.
No applause necessary. A Conlan encore is the appropriate response.
I’m not sure how many times Olympic boxing has investigated itself since Roy Jones Jr. got jobbed in the Seoul Hold-Up in 1988. Let’s just say that the fox has been running this hen house for so long that nobody seems to care anymore. There have always been rumblings that the Acronym-In-Chief, the IOC, might just ban boxing altogether.
But has anybody heard from the IOC about this latest boxing controversy? Didn’t think so.
The IOC silence speaks volumes. For the boxing abolitionists in the IOC’s comfortable suites, the sport has already been doing a pretty good job at eliminating itself. Conlan’s damning gesture after the Belfast bantamweight’s controversial loss in the quarterfinals last August might also be another way of saying goodbye. NBC did exactly that several years ago.
According to a statement published by Reuters, AIBA determined that “a small number of decisions under debate indicated that further reforms in the AIBA R&J (referee and judging) procedures were necessary.’’
The statement added that “the results of the investigation, currently underway, will allow AIBA to fully assess what action needs to be taken.’’
I guess the statement means we should all be relieved that a remedial process is underway. Yet, somehow, this sounds a little bit like Donald Trump promising he’ll release his tax documents after an audit is complete. Yeah, and that check is in the mail, too.
We already know where the boxing process has been. After the 2000 Sydney Games, amateur boxing announced that referee Stanislav Kirasnov had been suspended for four years for his questionable work in a controversial decision that cost American Rocky Juarez the gold medal.
Yet, Kirasnov was back, working international tournaments, long before the scheduled end of the announced suspension. Not much ever seems to change, other than the fighters themselves. Conlan has moved on. But that doesn’t mean his condemnation of AIBA has gone away.
As it turns out, his gesture might have been worth as much as a gold medal. He signed with Top Rank in a deal that resulted in a lot of publicity for him and promoter Bob Arum.
Both appeared in photos, each flashing that upraised finger, a gesture appropriate for what happened all over again in Rio and for the investigation that was announced Thursday.
