Baku, August 31, AZERTAC

AIBA president Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu held meetings with the vice presidents and commission chairs of his organisation over the course of two days in Lausanne to discuss the changes implemented in Olympic boxing and consider reforms, according to Boxing News.

They will examine the structure for referees and judges in AIBA, including reviewing the management and certification procedures for these officials and considering whether to implement a scoring system that uses five judges. At present five judges score a contest but only three, selected at random, of those scores are used to determine the result.

Over the course of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games there was outrage over certain key decisions.

Dr. Wu said, “Since I became the President of AIBA, we have always been looking at ways in which we might progress the sport, pushing it further for the benefit of the national federations and the boxers. Throughout boxing’s rich history, we have seen important changes that have defined the sport we love today, and I know that there are still improvements to be made. Now, we are holding strategic discussions between AIBA executives to lay down new milestones to maintain that positive evolution and vision.”

However AIBA also warned that they would address violations of the AIBA code of conduct that occurred during the Olympics. “Individuals and associated Federations have been forwarded to the Disciplinary Commission for further investigation, with appropriate actions to follow. It is essential that the AIBA family operates under this Code that epitomizes the key values of our sport: respect, fairness, integrity and transparency,” AIBA said in a statement.

Dr. Wu also accepted a proposal for internal restructuring within the organisation “to improve efficiency and communications and to better serve the AIBA family,” although further details on what the restructuring might entail were not divulged.

During the Olympic Games, executive director Karim Bouzidi was reassigned.

AIBA insisted they are committed to addressing “the challenges facing boxing and to bringing solutions that will ensure the integrity of our sport is maintained at all times”.