The dusk of boxing as an Olympic sport may have finally arrived with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) plans to shelve the sports entirely for the 2028 Olympics, and onwards. Following a jarring statement from the IOC in December last year were they threatened to remove boxing at the 2024 Olympics, the organization has recently confirmed boxing would still be on for 2024, but didn’t guarantee the same for the subsequent Olympic tournaments, in particular the 2028 Olympics.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) has been pointed as the primary catalyst for the IOC’s decision. Amongst other accusations, corruption was highlighted as one of the main reasons why the IOC sought to remove boxing from the 2024 Olympics. Umar Kremlev, the IBA’s president, was singled out to be at the forefront of IBA’s governance issues which spurred the IOC to contemplate removing boxing from the 2028 Olympics, at the very least. Some of the issues that pertain to him specifically revolve in Kremlev using marketing funds to promote himself or his businesses, and his lone sponsor, Russian energy company Gazprom.
The IOC has further accused the IBA of matchfixing amongst some of its greatest violations, which spurred Kremlev to declare that the IOC had “no real interest in the sport of boxing and the boxers but is only interested in its own power”. Umar Kremlev, who was first elected as President of the IBA in 2020, has not escaped controversy since his appointment, and even his re-election in 2022 was marred by corruption with his rival candidate, Boris van der Vorst – head of the Netherlands’ boxing association – was abruptly disqualified a day before the election. The Court of Arbitration for Sport intervened thereafter and tried to force the IBA to hold a second election, but the organization proceeded to vote for no elections being held.
The debacle with the 2022 election to decide the new president of the IBA and numerous corruption scandals were therefore the incentive for the IOC to make their plans for boxing in the Olympics known. Despite boxing being a strong possibility to not be featured in the 2028 Olympics, boxing at the 2024 Olympics will commence as scheduled.
The most blatant example of corruption in Olympics boxing may be attributed to the 2016 Olympics when Tony Yoka (1-2, 9 KO’s) controversially won his semi-final bout against Filip Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KO’s) and his finals match against Joe Joyce (15-0, 14 KO’s). The results were widely considered controversial, and the current state of the careers of all three Heavyweight boxers might be the best evidence of potential matchfixing.
With Tony Yoka having just recently lost in a career-ending fight against Heavyweight veteran Carlos Takam (40-7-1, 28 KO’s) – the second upset loss in a row, and both Joyce and Hrgovic being regarded as some of the best Heavyweights while currently still retaining their unbeaten records, these facts are reliable indicators that there may have been some truth to the IOC’s allegations of corruption.
With boxing set to be put aside for 2028, and potentially after, the progression of amateur boxers might be affected as Olympic tournaments often offer amateur prospects the best chance to improve by fighting the best in the world. There is additional concern that the IBA – which governs amateur boxing – will continue its alleged streak of corruption, which can only further affect the progression of amateur boxers if incidents such as matchfixing continue to occur.
