It’s time for Olympic boxing to clean itself up

There's another PR disaster at the Rio Olympics — and this one has nothing to do with USA Swimming. This one is in boxing.

The International Amateur Boxing Association has sent home some judges and referees after some highly questionable decisions. Some Olympic boxers are even alleging that matches were fixed.

If the fix was indeed in, it came as no surprise to the BBC's Anna Adams. Back in 2011, she uncovered what is, essentially, a possible pay for gold scheme involving the association. The league has always denied any wrong doing. But the takeaway from Anna's story is this: It's simple to fix an Olympic fight.

"It's quite straight forward," she says. "If you want someone to win, you simply don't press the scoring button for their opponent."

Adams says it's an easier sport to fix at the Olympics. It doesn't involve many people.

"There's often no paper trail. These deals are struck between a couple of individuals in a bar. But it's certainly never written down on paper," she says. "And I think it's, ultimately, something the IOC will have to take seriously because back when we did our investigation we passed all of our findings to them and we were told that they'd look into it and we didn't hear back."

Adams and the BBC were told by the International Olympic Committee that unless their source went public or they had paper evidence then they couldn't do anything. "So until that changes, I don't think this is going to be the last case that we'll see," she says.

The people impacted by this are, of course, the boxers. Most are unaware of such shenanigans that involve cash payments for beneficial judging. But boxers aren't angels, either. The BBC obtained a leaked document from the World Anti-Doping Agency. "It said that boxing had the worst drug testing numbers of any of the other 28 sports competing in Rio," she says. 

Adams says the document called for an urgent meeting ahead of the Rio Games. 

"We're not sure that meeting ever took place."

There's another PR disaster at the Rio Olympics — and this one has nothing to do with USA Swimming. This one is in boxing.

The International Amateur Boxing Association has sent home some judges and referees after some highly questionable decisions. Some Olympic boxers are even alleging that matches were fixed.

If the fix was indeed in, it came as no surprise to the BBC's Anna Adams. Back in 2011, she uncovered what is, essentially, a possible pay for gold scheme involving the association. The league has always denied any wrong doing. But the takeaway from Anna's story is this: It's simple to fix an Olympic fight.

"It's quite straight forward," she says. "If you want someone to win, you simply don't press the scoring button for their opponent."

Adams says it's an easier sport to fix at the Olympics. It doesn't involve many people.

"There's often no paper trail. These deals are struck between a couple of individuals in a bar. But it's certainly never written down on paper," she says. "And I think it's, ultimately, something the IOC will have to take seriously because back when we did our investigation we passed all of our findings to them and we were told that they'd look into it and we didn't hear back."

Adams and the BBC were told by the International Olympic Committee that unless their source went public or they had paper evidence then they couldn't do anything. "So until that changes, I don't think this is going to be the last case that we'll see," she says.

The people impacted by this are, of course, the boxers. Most are unaware of such shenanigans that involve cash payments for beneficial judging. But boxers aren't angels, either. The BBC obtained a leaked document from the World Anti-Doping Agency. "It said that boxing had the worst drug testing numbers of any of the other 28 sports competing in Rio," she says. 

Adams says the document called for an urgent meeting ahead of the Rio Games. 

"We're not sure that meeting ever took place."