It turns out that if you want to be a boxing ref at the Olympics, you actually need to abide by the rules of the sport. Ishanguly Meretnyyazov of Turkmenistan found this out yesterday when he was sent home for not calling a standing eight-count on any of the six times Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov was knocked down by Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu in the third round of their bantamweight bout on Wednesday. It doesn’t end there, though. Shimizu was declared the loser after judges scored the last round as even, 10-10, despite dominating the fight and, again, knocking down his opponent six times in the final round. The Japanese Olympic Committee immediately appealed the result to the International Amateur Boxing Association, and it was overturned, the victory awarded to Shimizu. This all comes a year after the BBC that the Azerbaijani boxing association gave World Series Boxing a $10 million loan in exchange for two guaranteed gold medals this summer. A group appointed by the AIBA dismissed the claims as “groundless and unsupported by any credible evidence,” but the BBC stands by its report.
Via