None, 'cause few people care about boxing anymore***

scooter

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didn't watch, but can't imagine it was the worst in history

Jun 10, 2012, 5:22 PM

remember Roy Jones Jr. getting screwed in the Olympics?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/feb/15/olympic-moments-roy-jones-jr

The 19-year-old Jones had blazed his way to the final in a flurry of bionic left hooks and twinkling toes. It took him two minutes to dispose of M'tendere Makalamba in his opening match, a brief and brutal affair. Czechoslovakia's Michal Franek survived a pummelling in the second round, but lost by unanimous 5-0 decision. Jones skipped around the ring pinging punches into Yevgeni Zaytsev's face in the quarter-finals on his way to another 5-0 win, and was tested by Britain's Richie Woodhall in the semi-final but largely untroubled and was given another unanimous decision by the judges.

Park, meanwhile, had been far less impressive. Some observers felt he could, possibly should, have lost all four of his fights on the way to the final. Certainly Vincenzo Nardiello felt he deserved the nod from the judges in their quarter-final – when the 3-2 split decision went to the South Korean, the three-times Italian champion went to remonstrate furiously with the officials and had to be dragged away from the ring.

The final, on the last day of boxing at the Games, was a rout, Jones, barely bothering to raise his guard, landed 86 punches to Park's 32. The Korean took two standing eight counts and was twice warned by the referee. NBC's Count-A-Punch recorder scored the rounds 20-3, 30-15 and 36-14 in Jones's favour. Watch the footage – it's an utterly one-sided affair.

The three judges didn't think so. Bob Kasule of Uganda, Uruguay's Alberto Durán and Hiouad Larbi of Morocco gave Park the fight, two others giving it to Jones. As the referee, Aldo Leoni, raises Park's hand, the Korean fighter looks entirely embarrassed. Leoni himself looks disgusted. "I can't believe they're doing this to you," he whispered to the distraught American.

The medal ceremony is equally cringeworthy. Jones received huge cheers, Park, standing on the top of the podium, couldn't have looked more sheepish had he been bleating and swathed in wool. He held the American's fist aloft. Jones still looks shell-shocked. "I don't blame him," said Jones. "He didn't score the fight. That's the worst I've ever been dealt in my life. They put the silver medal around my neck, and I took it right off. I won't put it around my neck ever again."

What happened next?

In the aftermath an angry American press pack confronted Larbi. "It was a terrible thing," he was quoted as saying by Sports Illustrated. "The American won easily; so easily, in fact, that I was positive my four fellow judges would score the fight for the American by a wide margin. So I voted for the Korean to make the score only 4-1 for the American and not embarrass the host country." Larbi, Kasule and Durán were suspended for six months pending an investigation but eventually cleared by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

Several years later, evidence emerged. Karl-Heinz Wuhr, the general secretary of AIBA, was mixing his boxing duties with work as a Stasi agent. When the Stasi's secret files were released following the collapse of the Soviet Union the investigative journalist and author Andrew Jennings found allegations of outright bribery. "They did not miss a chance to try to corrupt or influence me," Wuhr wrote. "They [the host nation] repeatedly attempted to persuade me to take back my decisions punishing judges they seemed to have an interest in. There were always judges prepared to declare a South Korean boxer victor, even if this was completely ludicrous." He alleged bribes had been paid to several unnamed judges, including three from Africa and one from South America and felt the "manipulation" went high up into the executive of AIBA. The referee Leoni supported the claims, saying an Argentinian colleague had been offered an envelope stuffed with cash by the Korean boxing authorities.

Jones, though, has never received the gold medal that is rightfully his. In 1997 an IOC investigation concluded that although the offending judges had been wined and dined by Korean organisers, "there is no evidence of corruption in the boxing events in Seoul". The chief upshot of one of the worst moments in Olympic history was the introduction of a new electronic scoring system (although that failed to prevent new accusations of bias at the Atlanta Games eight years later).

the entire fight, if you're interested.... http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTk0NjQxMDg=.html

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What were your thoughts on Pacquiao getting screwed

Re: What were your thoughts on Pacquiao getting screwed

Should have knocked him out or even knocked him down.

They care enough to generate money that pays fighters in

exactly, the heavy weight division is dead but the lower...

I bet ...

Boxing needs one unified organization running it….

I was in utter disbelief

didn't watch, but can't imagine it was the worst in history

Re: What were your thoughts on Pacquiao getting screwed

Re: What were your thoughts on Pacquiao getting screwed

I wouldn't say boxing is irrelevant.

Is the ACC reffin' fights now?***

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