“If people have defrauded, they must be punished, and as quickly as possible,” French boxer Tony Yoka’s lawyer said Monday after the McLaren report (which we have peeled back and forth) claiming that eleven fights of the Rio 2016 Olympics, including the final won by Yoka, are marred by possible cheating.
“This is an independent report made by AIBA [la fédération internationale de boxe], perhaps in a particular context, at this point there is no lesson to be learned. This puts the athlete in an uncomfortable situation, and the real victim is the athlete, ”said Arnaud Péricard on the sidelines of the presentation of the France team who will travel to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics. (February 3 to 20).
The McLaren report does not accuse the boxers or their entourage of having intervened directly to influence the fighting, but reveals a vast system of influence piloted at the top of the AIBA, then led by Taiwanese Wu Ching-Kuo. “The report exonerates all athletes from any involvement, responsibility,” he said alongside Tony Yoka. “The suspended and implicated referees were fired after the quarter-finals, this does not even concern the half and the final,” said the boxer alongside his council.
Joyce claims the gold medal
Following this report, the British boxer Joe Joyce, beaten by Tony Yoka in the final of the category of +91 kg, claims the gold medal. “I am convinced that I won the fight against Tony Yoka and that I deserved the gold medal. But that day I was not declared the winner and, at the time, I accepted it, ”Joyce explained on her social networks on Friday.
“Besides that you may add a small dose of Anglo-Saxon bad faith in a report, with a James Joyce who, as if by chance, is on the verge of a discussion for a professional fight with Tony Yoka” , Tony Yoka’s lawyer noted.
The investigation particularly implicates the French Karim Bouzidi, former executive director of AIBA, who had been sacked three days before the end of the Rio Olympics: two years ago, he had already been suspected of being be heard from the most reputable referees (labeled “five stars” and supposed to raise the level of arbitration) to favor certain countries.