Boxing has clearly not seen its last controversy

London: When the phone rings at six in the morning, either the news has to be very good or very bad. Saturday morning brought no cheer. Vikas Krishan, who had won the welterweight bout last evening against American Errol Spence, had been declared loser. The Americans had appealed against the 11-13 verdict against Spence and the competition jury, after a detailed viewing of the bout, held that Vikas had in fact lost. Opinion on the bout had been divided with many believing that the American had been far superior. But the 20-year-old Vikas from Bhiwani was gutted and the Indian contingent upset and angry. A counter-appeal was to be lodged at 1 pm London time. I think this was imperative under the circumstances, but I also think that a review of a review is unlikely to be entertained by the competition jury. [caption id=“attachment_404972” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Boxing has already had some controversy in these Games. AP[/caption] Boxing has already had some controversy in these Games. Two referees had earlier been asked to leave after the competition jury found inconsistencies in their performance. A couple of days back, AIBA in an official statement said referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov “is on his way back home”. The world governing body had also suspended German referee Frank Scharmach for five days for his decision to disqualify a heavyweight boxer from Iran. Later on, technical official Aghajan Abiyev of Azerbaijan was also suspended. In a bout that raised a lot of stink, Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu felled Azerbaijan’s bantamweight pugilist Magomed Abdulhamidov half a dozen times in the third round, yet lost the bout to a 17-22 decision! “I deeply regret that we had to take these decisions,” said AIBA president CK Wu, adding that, “Our main concern has been and will always be the protection of the integrity and fair play of our competitions. I will take all possible steps to reinforce this.” The scoring system in boxing is complex, not easily understood by fans, but it is also fact that allegations of biased refereeing have never been far removed from the sport. The last has clearly not been heard on this issue. ***** ***** ****** Last evening, it was a treat to be at Wimbledon. The Federer-Del Potro match, which stretched to over four hours, was gripping not just for the felicity of the Swiss ace, but also the tenacity of the big Argentinian. Federer remains the game’s biggest draw, of course, and in the audience— apart from an assortment of British high society— was American basketball superstar Kobe Bryant. The audience for the Olympics is different from that for the Grand Slam played here: more boisterous and prone to breaking into a high-speed Mexican wave every now and then. But the carnival atmosphere has not taken a whit from the intensity of the competition. The evening was made complete – especially for the home supporters – with Andy Murray beating Novak Djokovic 7-5, 7-5 in straight sets to set up a repeat of the Wimbledon final clash with Federer. Federer is unarguably the most loved tennis player in the world, but Murray will not lag behind in crowd support when he takes the centre court on Sunday for the final. Can he beat his nemesis this time is the big question that is being asked. That remains to be seen but one thing is for sure: win or lose, Murray will be shedding a lot of tears. ****** ****** ****** From the centre court to court 12, where Leander Paes and Sania Mirza were to play the mixed doubles against the top-ranked Belarusian pair of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka. By the time this match started, it was almost dusk and it was always unlikely that it would be completed on the same day unless one of the teams crumbled. Neither did, but the Belarusians edged ahead in the first through a double fault by Sania for the crucial last point, and were 3-2 ahead when the chair umpire ruled that light was not good enough to continue. It was thought that the match would shift to centre court; Anil Khanna, head honcho of AITA, said that the itinerary stipulated it had to be finished on Friday. But that was not to be. The Indian pair had played rather well I thought. For all that has transpired, the two were warm with each other and blended well on court. Sania’s forehand worked fast and furious and Leander showed his supreme fitness and agility at the net to play some scintillating volleys. With a little luck, this game could see a turnaround. Leander was also in a contentious mood, disputing a line call furiously for a couple of minutes. To the naked eye, it appeared that he was right, but to no avail. There was a motley group of supporters for both pairs, but enough to create a ruckus. For the record, neither Mahesh Bhupathi nor Rohan Bopanna were there.