The Olympic sports I like the most are those that require skills so basic that almost anyone can try them, like running, jumping and throwing. Boxing falls into this category because anyone can try to hit someone else as hard as they can. Unfortunately, Olympic boxing has so many faults that, despite its long history in the Games, it is time to eliminate it from the Olympic program.
To begin with, boxing is one of only two Olympic sports in which the world’s best athletes are not eligible. The other such sport, soccer, at least allows some professionals to take part. Boxing also has a weird scoring system. A successfully executed jab earns one point. A knockdown earns the same one point. But what makes boxing really unacceptable is the corruption and incompetence of the referees and the judges. There have been so many outrageous decisions during the 2012 London Olympics that it is difficult to pick out the worst. Although it was later reversed, how about the “victory” of Magomed Abdulhamidov of Azerbaijan despite the fact that he fell to the ground six times in one round?
If this year’s suspicious incidents were unusual, perhaps they could be overlooked. However, they are actually only the latest in a long string of dubious decisions. American boxing fans might recall the 1988 light middleweight final in which Roy Jones outpunched Park Si-hun of South Korea 86 to 32 … and lost the fight. Even Park apologized to Jones, but the decision was not reversed. Similar Olympic outrages have been documented as far back as 1924, leading to sit-down protests, full-scale riots and even boxers punching referees.
It is worth noting that other judged combat sports in the Olympics, although not devoid of controversy, have managed to avoid the absurdities of boxing. These include judo, wrestling, fencing and tae kwon do.
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