AIBA: A True Disgrace & Hard Left Hook to the Face Of Amateur Boxers Around the World!

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Start the legal papers RIGHT now. Forget the Hague and any international conventions but remember this. Of the 84 countries out of 88 who make up the nonsense that is AIBA, they should be named, shamed and we should be ready to prosecute.

The idea that an amateur who has been honing his or her trade over 3 rounds by 3 minute combat in each can face a battle hardened and scarred professional who has had nearly 40 or 50 or 60 contests with a number of bruising rounds is absurd. We know what happens when boxers are mismatched. It’s not just carnage; it could be fatal.

But hey, what does that matter in the whole Roman Coliseum that is NOW the place where the modern day Christians are going to be force fed to the lions an Olympic boxing ring… As long as the spectacle is there for people to watch. The blood thirsty can feel sated because they shall see guts not glory whilst the rest of us, the boxing fraternity shall watch through their fingers and hope that nobody gets hurt.

We may be lucky and there might not be the type of “accident” that has put a number of boxers in comas and some in body bags. It may be that I am being over dramatic. I just don’t think that I am.
And it is not just my view but the overwhelming view of boxers and former boxers, of Olympians and former Olympians. I am neither convinced nor much interested in the arguments that are being put forward about how the top amateurs are good enough or that the professionals would add to the spectacle for one simple reason; these arguments are simply not good enough.

Take the sensation that is Anthony Joshua, 16-0 16 KO’s. And he is a sensation. We are having debates over here about whether or not he is ready to face the likes of Tyson Fury, 25-0, 18 KO’s and David Haye, 27-2, 25 KO’s. Since winning the Olympic Gold Medal he has been groomed for the top. His pathway has been a careful construction of a career that allows him to gain a foothold on greatness because he has grown into the professional game.

Even now we have a debate about Haye Vs Joshua. There is a growing sense that rather than Joshua not being ready for Haye, Haye might not be able to handle Joshua. It is a critical moment in the career of a man who walked out the ring in 2012 with a gold medal round his neck. It has taken nearly 4 years for his career to get to this point.

Despite putting gold round his neck he was not ready to face a professional boxer then. That it has taken 4 years to get to the point where he may well be ready to face the cream of the professional crop shows just how ridiculous this decision by AIBA actually is. It’s a disgrace and I think we should all be clamouring for the officials throughout the world to be charged if there are any boxers unable to get up off a canvass, walk out a ring or converse with his or her public after the fights.

There are many points that have been made elsewhere which add to this argument against professionals being at the Olympics but the overwhelming one is the safety of the competitors, for me. In the next few weeks I might return to the future of the World Series of Boxing or the ending of amateur boxing or what actually is the Olympic spirit. For now, I am just content with making the case against the biggest wilful threat to human life and safety that I can think about.

I have done more than my fair share of stupid things in my life but I have never knowingly put another person’s life or quality of life in danger. I would expect things to be thrown at me if I had. he books should be gathered now to be thrown at the idiots in charge of AIBA now.

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