IOC member wary of Chowdry

International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound of Canada is expecting foul play in boxing at Athens because he claims no discernable progress has been made to improve the quality of judging fights.

Pound, who ran and lost to Jacques Rogge of Belgium for the IOC presidency three years ago, is an outspoken critic of Olympic boxing and has called for its removal from the Games calendar.

"Part of the problem was in the selection of the officials who were not necessarily the best but who were given the Olympic assignment as a reward for long service in the sport," notes Pound in his book Inside the Olympics. "They were often so old that their vision and reflexes were not good enough to make the many instant judgments required in a fast-moving sport. Knockouts are rare in Olympic boxing due to the headgear and size of gloves. That is why a prearranged result could be achieved by collusion among the judges."

Pound’s critical objection to Olympic boxing, however, is leveled squarely at the Association Internationale de Boxe (AIBA), the sport’s governing world federation managed by despotic president Anwar Chowdry of Pakistan. It appears he is not against Olympic boxing per se.

"A new method of scoring has recently been implemented," he continues. "Boxing leaders, thick as their skin may be, eventually came to the conclusion that some change would have to be implemented and after years of cautious experimentation, moved toward a new system. Each judge now has an electronic touch pad and must register each landed blow within a second or two. However, no significant improvement has resulted from this. Incompetence and bias can confound any judging system and as anyone knows, the cyber-world adage ‘garbage in, garbage out’ is as current as ever."

Pound says Olympic boxing’s real problem is integrity and he doubts if Chowdry is honest.

"The sport is another that has shown its judges to be less concerned with fairness than they are with their own interests," he adds. "And the sport’s leaders seem dedicated mainly to staying in power rather than dealing with the problems that everyone in the world, save the boxing supremos, recognizes."

Chowdry is on his fifth four-year term as AIBA president and continues to rule the sport with an iron fist.

Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) president Manny Lopez, however, is confident that Filipinos won’t be shortchanged in Athens. He claims the Philippines is back in Chowdry’s good graces and points to Filipino Arturo Vidal’s inclusion in the hand-picked 34-man pool of referees and judges as proof. Vidal is only the fourth Filipino to be named to the pool in Olympic boxing history and the first since 1992.

There are four Filipino boxers in Athens. In all, 286 fighters from 73 countries are vying for honors in 11 weight classes. Europe has the largest group with 91 from 21 countries. Asia is represented by 64 from 19 countries.

Uzbekistan has the largest contingent from Asia with nine boxers. Kazakhstan is next with eight then Korea with seven. China and Thailand are next with six apiece. Pakistan not surprisingly has more fighters with five than the Philippines. Lightflyweight Karim Nouman would’ve been the sixth Pakistani in the lineup if only he passed the drug test.

The Filipino contenders are lightflyweight Harry Tañamor, flyweight Violito Payla, lightwelterweight Romeo Brin and middleweight Chris Camat.

Tañamor is the pre-Olympic choice to bag a bronze but it won’t be easy. The lightflyweight (48 kg or 106 pounds) division is loaded with standouts like Yan Bartelemy of Cuba, Raul Warren of the US, Sergei Kazakov of Russia, Suban Pannon of Thailand and Zou Shimming of China.

Payla is also in a tight spot. The flyweight (51 kg or 112 pounds) hopefuls include Georgi Balakshin of Russia, Yurtolkis Gamboa of Cuba, Somjit Jonghor of Thailand and Jerome Thomas of France.

Brin is in a fix, too. Fighting in his third Olympics, he’s facing formidable opposition in the lightwelterweight (64 kg or 141 pounds) class where the favorites are Alexander Maletin of Russia, Willy Blain of France, Rock Allen of the US, Yudel Johnson Cedeno of Cuba, Juan de Dios Navarro of Mexico and Manus Boonjumnon of Thailand.

Camat is in the worst situation as a middleweight (75 kg or 165 pounds). The top bets in the category include Suriya Pasathi Nphmai of Thailand, Andre Dirrell of the US, Yordanis Despaigne of Cuba, Gennadiy Golovkin of Kazakhstan and Gaiderbek Gaiderbekov of Russia.

The boxing competitions are scheduled for 15 days from Aug. 14 to 29. There will be a rest day on Aug. 28.

The age limit for Olympic boxers is 34 and the floor is 17. Each bout is set for four rounds of two minutes each. Five judges are assigned for a fight. A boxer earns a point if at least three judges press the button on their computerized consoles, signifying a connected blow, within a second of each other.

The sum of the points at the end of the fight will determine the winner. If the points are identical, then the best and worst scores are deducted from the two of the five scorecards and the fighter with more points from the remaining three judges is declared the winner.