Repeat of Roy Jones robbery at Seoul Games possible with change in AIBA scoring system

Talk to any amateur boxer and they will tell you a story of how they have felt frustration at losing a bout which would have taken them to the Olympics. Or even at the Games.

The judging/scoring system in amateur boxing is one of the most contentious in sport. Roy Jones Jnr lost to the Korean Park Si-Hun in a controversial final at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Computerised scoring was introduced as a result of the controversies at the 1988 Games in Seoul.

Jones, who went on to achieve legendary status in the professional ranks, was the victim of what is generally regarded as the worst decision in boxing history.

Jones came up against South Korean Park Si-hun in the light-middleweight gold medal fight, and landed double the punches of his opponent.

There were other ‘suspicious’ matches during those Games, and the then International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch threatened to remove boxing from the Olympics.

It is before my time writing on boxing, but I have seen the contest, and Jones wins it clearly.

The outrage, and an appeal, mattered little. He left the Seoul Games with the silver medal and went on to have a stellar professional career.

There were allegations then of judges decisions being rigged. They went all the way, in some accounts, back to the involvement of the Stasi, the East German secret police.

World amateur boxing is mired in smokescreens, controlled at its head by the dictatorship of Dr Ching Kuo Wu, the president of the International Amateur Boxing Association.

Dr Wu, an astute politician, with links to the IOC hierarchy, and a voting member, has said he will examine the allegations, made by a BBC2 Newsnight investigation, that matches were to be fixed at next year’s Games, were “untrue and ludicrous” but the judging system is more open to question than ever before, particularly because the scores are not to be shown until the end of each of the three, 3-minute rounds.

That rule change came in in March this year. Previously, the ongoing score could be seen as the bout progressed. To score, five judges, in different positions around the ring, will depress a red or blue button, the boxers represented for one or the other of the boxers, for each scoring punch.

The obfuscation of the scores until the end of the round need not have been implemented. A grey area is only likely to become even more confusing, for both protagonists, and spectators alike.

Allowing professional boxers into Olympics will not draw likes of Mayweather and Pacquiao

It was suggested this week that some of the world’s leading professional boxers – Floyd Junior, Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan among them – could return to the Olympics under new moves by the world amateur governing body for boxing to allow professionals to compete at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. But unfortunately it is flawed. Some may return, but not boxing’s big earners.

The radical new plans were proposed this week by International Boxing Association (AIBA) President C K Wu, a powerful and at times controversial figure. Tennis and golf, along with rugby union, all have professional exponents competing in the Olympics.

Yet amateur boxing and professional boxing are two distinct sports. Headguards, differing in rounds, a completely diverse set of criteria.

The new programme, entitled AIBA Professional Boxing (APB), to be launched in 2013, will allow competitors to retain their Olympic eligibility despite boxing professionally. However, the truth of the concept lies in the small print.

A spokesperson for the Amateur Boxing Association of England said: “The announcement by AIBA represents another step in attempting to provide a duty of care and support to boxers throughout the whole of their careers. The welfare of boxers is our number one priority and we would expect everyone connected with the sport to support this principle.

“Like all major changes it creates a number of significant challenges for us as an organisation and I am forming a Commission to examine the proposals in more detail in our role as the governing body for amateur boxing in England. We will provide a further update after the Commission has arrived at its initial conclusions.

A feature of the competition is that current professional boxers can have their Olympic eligibility restored if they compete in the first season of the APB and the AIBA President, who is also and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, is confident some of the sport’s biggest stars will be tempted to compete in the event because of the lure of Olympic glory. However, boxing’s biggest earners are unlikely to take the bait.

Tony Jeffries, the GB Beijing Games bronze medallist, told The Telegraph that he believes some boxers will take the move. Jeffries, who has been a professional for three years, has moved to California in a bid to enhance his career. “But I would love the opportunity to compete again in the Olympics. I think quite a few guys will consider it.” Jeffries told The Telegraph.

Audley Harrison, who won gold in Sydney in 2000, ruled it out. “I’d go to Rio,” Harrison told The Telegraph this week. “But probably only as an official within the British Olympic Association.”

President Wu has said: “I hope we can attract the very best professionals out there. I don’t know definitely if they will compete in AIBA Professional Boxing but I am hopeful they will because the Olympics is something very special and there is no greater prize in sport than the Olympic gold medal. The door is open to them.”

The likelihood is that few of the biggest names in boxing will walk through that door.