Let me add my voice to that of GB Boxing in joining the campaign to keep boxing at the Olympics.
As things stand Paris 2024 will be the swansong for a sport that has been at the Olympics since 1904. The International Olympic Committee is absolutely right to hold the IBA, formerly IABA, to account for the corruption that has tainted the Olympic boxing experience.
The standard of judging has been unacceptable for too long. A world wide audience, billions watching, there is no excuse for delivering a failed system. My amateur career was tarnished by a bad decision at the Moscow Olympics. I am still bitter about that.
I was robbed blind. Others before and since have suffered similarly. But surely it is not beyond the wit of man to ensure the right mechanisms are in place for 2028. The Los Angeles Olympics are hugely symbolic in a country that has produced so many great champions.
The stories of Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks, Evander Holyfield, Oscar de la Hoya and many others are inextricably linked to the Olympics. You cannot think about the Olympics without boxing. Moreover you cannot think about sport without the boxing heroes that have graced the landscape.
It is incumbent on all to look at the bigger picture. How you can you punish the participants for the failures of the authorities? The problem is not with the fighters but those in positions of power within governing organisations. This is an issue that repeats across all walks of life.
Just look at the recent experience of FIFA and before that the International Olympic Committee itself. Both organisations have been embroiled in corruption scandals at the very top. The way to counter it is to have the right structures in place, beginning with the recycling of positions of power.
One Olympic cycle for the key decision-makers and move on with national bodies voting on their replacements. By reforming the governing institutions and making sure the decision-makers are answerable we can move forward.
We should not forget the role of boxing across the globe providing hope and structure in communities that have to fight for everything they get. It gives kids with horrible lives a chance to shine and provide for their families. Prize fighting predates the Games, and expresses an elemental part of what it is to be human.
It would be a catastrophe therefore were the IOC, no matter how great the provocation, to turn its back on boxing, a sport that has produced so many global superstars.
Follow Barry on Twitter at @ClonesCyclone @McGuigans_Gym
