Corruption In Boxing

Gambling

Discuss about the Corruption in Boxing.

Beginning with the introductory section, boxing has been one of the most renowned sports among all the other combat sports of the ancient times. Since, the early civilizations, sports and games have been a major concern among the mass across the world. Be it the Mesopotamians, Sumerians or the Asians, the main source of entertainment and recreation of the countrymen was sports (Forster, 2016). The prime representation of boxing is the symbol of manliness, strength and the Upliftment of spirit and bravery that are the key tools within a warrior. Boxing had been derived from “Boxiana”, by Pierce Egan which was one of the favorite pass time of the English men. This especially represented the battles or fights held among the working class fighters who usually had such brave fights pulled up in order to gain fame or popularity among the peers (Washbourne, 2013). People in the locale gathered together, making crowds to watch the entertaining fights. It was later renamed as a man’s means of defense. Now, in the recent times, the world has received plenty of desiring fighters who have taken the game at the peak. The gruesome feature and outlook of the sport made it even more popular among the crowds. Some of the famous fighters who have an outstanding contribution to the field of boxing are Joe Frazier, Sony Leston, Rocky Marciano, Mohammed Ali and Joe Lewis. Some of the newcomers in this zone are Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson who had successfully evoked the craze of boxing among the youngsters (Boddy, 2013). The different strangers that this game had to face was among the controversies that went on repeating for several years. Match fixing, official manipulation and diving harassed with the sports person repeatedly.

Boxing is not famous in the world, yet it is a famous sport in the West which has a professional approach that states as a gamblers paradise. Media has given a hype and an attention towards the system of pay-per-view and this is a hype that draws money from the system. With this aspect, Boxing is a the sport with the adrenaline charged where two fighters fight with an intention to beat each other to gain a victory. There are online gambling which is practical enough to place some bets if a user has knowledge regarding the one-on-one fights. There are possible situations in gambling that encourages these days when judges fix the match and is completely figured it out in some situations. Sometimes, involvement of celebrities may lead to big bets in boxing. There are instances when the illegal betting is going through the tournament with these fights  (Figueroa, 2013).

Doping

With the current name in the list as a famous list in gambling is Floyd Mayweather. He then changed his name while justifying the all earned amount of 1 million Dollars in gambling. He had many record breaking fights with Pacquiao and earned a huge amount that later then added to his income of around 827000 USD. There are revenues that are generated as the result of gambling, in some middleweight boxing and games between Monroe and Gennady. The other celebrities in the list are many as such American Rapper who is known to acquire around 1.6 million USD that beats Pacquiao  (Riess, 2011). Wahlberg Mark is an actor with 2,50,000 USD who bet with rapper Diddy and won against Mayweather. The CNN confirms the report in the year 2015. There are gambling activities that are observed and are reported by the reporters to make an awareness about what has boxing as a sport to say about in the near future with the gambling activity and the illegal betting that has a limitation and a loss for a particular sport and the activity. The Rio Olympic 2016 also had a warning regarding the illegal betting that was among Iris boxers which was reported and warned to Irish Sports  and the organization

The PED’s are practiced in boxing while it is stated that boxing is a sport that needs a physical fitness which is a major issue, so it’s a combat sport. Lack of discipline may lose a match that tends to be one of the reasons why boxers fail very quickly to this sport. Even if its professional stage or an Olympian, doping is used at a high level and repeated. The Panama Lewis was the worst case that was observed in the boxing world. A world renowned trainer, with a different character and the public image of Panama was the case. Illegal simulations were used by his boxers and they were trained accordingly. There are sports that are under drugs, but boxing seems to be like one with the most used drug which was reported by a writer in the Daily Mail (Rudd, 2013). 

(Nappo, 2015) there are almost at each stage, where matches are fixed, call it as dives, judges or referees, they are part of the fixing the matches in boxing. There are beyond the records where the flow of money is being counted in and out of the world where the boxing matches are fixed. With a reason to earn more and more money and income, there were match fixings that are practiced and channelizes the amount. Being partial, taking dives by players and at least judges would look upon the favorite, while choosing a performance is an act of cheating and a match fixing in the rings. With the fighters and the investors for more money, it has been hungering for more money which has led to this situation. There are issues of scandal that are noted by Mayweather and Pacquiao that relate to the match fixing state. This was the fight that created a stir with the latest times that was noted in the world of sports especially in boxing. There were investigations that were made through the Boxing Associations that was a actually a no charge and then eventually stripped with the results. As such Mayweather did not respond to the accusations that has been surrounded and alleged in the investigations. The scorecard was a far reality that was considered even though Pacquiao lose the game  (Sotomayor, 2016).

Match Fixing

Norris has been observed in fixing the match which was long back, he was a rich man who was involved in the sports world. He even owns National Hockey League Franchisee in the mid of the 20th century and then was stated as a significant share at Square Gardern and racehorses too. The attitude of unsavory was of individual choice for him and was rumored that he has links in the criminal activity too. He was even a president with the International Boxing Club that was unwritten as a monopoly act in the championship fight. He was then responsible with fixing the matches that involved names such as Lamotta and Harry Thomas. There were some allegations that further went when he was actually accused while advisors and associates were forced to hire. The Olympic event has even match fixings and there were controversies in the boxing game (Washbourne, 2013).

With such high controversies and issues, Rio Olympic was even in such controversy. There was a move for judges and referees who were moved from one position because of the dubious result that was being given by them in the Olympic Boxing. There were suspects that had made these decisions to be match fixed already. This was then declared to tainted, when there was a revealation from the Federation. In this event, it was noted that AIBA mainly monitored all the relevant events and revealed that the results were unexpected  (Wilde, 2016).

The most astonishing feature among this category is about the IBF president Robert Lee who accepts the bribe. The governing bodies linked with the boxing world are a tetra world championship governing bodies (Ingen, 2015). They are named as WBC, WBO, WBA and last but not the least among the list is IBF. The youngest among the all is IBF. It began its journey in the year 1984. It commenced with several rumors, scandals, and gossips regarding the acceptance of the bribe to about three hundred and thirty-eight thousand USD. The rumor headed about the title shots and rankings utilized during the terms of the sports. Irrespective of the merits, fights that were held by the fighters, there were immense support of millionaires who came to this arena with the issue of assistance like that of Dong King (Jordan, 2014). The controversies in the IBF zone continued till the president Robert Lee was arrested. He was arrested much after the continuation of such illegal activities, around thirteen years later. He was charged against treachery by the British cop force along with several other officials (Sotomayor, 2016). Later on, the media was successful to flush out the hidden fact behind it which revealed the involvement of seven promoters along with twenty-three boxers who were being brought away with bribes.

The Remarkable Worst Stories of Corruption Associated with the Game

It was this very person, known as Don King, who did not leave the chance to fill five gold bags from the US Olympics at the time 1976. He was the former person who started the United States Boxing Championship. However, at a later stage, Don King had decided to sell this idea and reform it in terms of a magazine that was popularly titled as the Ring Magazine (Schaap, 2005). Thus, the Ring Magazine contained all his solid ideas. Thus, there was a mutual dependence of both the magazine as well as that of Don King. Don King was successful in hiring his fighters in accordance with his requirement (Roberts, 2010). On the other hand, the magazine got its promotion through the financial status and a recognized figure of Don King. King found it easy and beneficial as he could access fighters or boxers whenever he desired (Ross, Casson, Siggel, & Cole, 1987). Don King enjoyed this fact very gladly as he could access a huge market validations that were absolutely up to the mark of his level of expectation. Don King could be finally exposed by the combined efforts of media teams and boxing journalists. Bribes were granted, and match fixings reached the top most floor where information revealed that fighters were rigged in order to hold off the fighters who were represented by the King (Nappo, 2015).

This game began with the settlement of scandals and controversies and was even faced with such scandals and controversial gossips at the time of staging of the game at the level of the Olympics. Certain mischievous actions were known to be common (Vermeulen, 2013). Tosses were performed in an inadequate way. Several other ill treatments such as debasement came to be in source along with the utility or the setting of the novice code at the time of play were consequently established (Wadler, 2010). There was a constant debate about all matters and repeated questions were raised in response to the decisions stated by the judges. It was evident with direct clarity where the judges often had to face the threat of the match fixers (Vaughn, 2010). The bench of judges was absolutely terrified in regard to the pressure pushed them along with bribes. This circumstantial difference and controversies were no way left by the fixers at any place. It was even dragged to the highest level of esteem, following the largest sports of all, that is, The Olympics (Streible, 2008). The Olympics are generally considered a place where the game, boxing attained its maximum peak and collected a new identity and fame, still then, the stage had a lot of controversies and scandals to deal with the sport’s of gloves, boxing (Rudd, 2013). The stage of the Olympics is the biggest arena in the world in respect of any sports. It determines the level of achievement in all other sports and similarly of boxing also. History is evident to the reality which depicts the reach of the game to its competitive level (Jordan, 2014). Boxing met with success much beyond the sky at the Rio Olympics, even where five controversial decisions took place along the suspicious instances and layout of the declarations and stories of the different occurrences:-

The non-British boxer who won the silver medal at London in 1908 was recognized by the name Reginald Baker. He belonged from Australia and the world was quite astonished at his success in the region of Boxing (Rudd, Lewis, & Wang, 2016). While, the only debate that arose was in regard to the complaint conducted by Baker against the referee. He stated about the referee’s impartiality during the conduction of the fight and he raised a tremendous protest against him and the virtues conducted in the sport. Later on, at the time of the final match, Baker was compelled to accept the inferiority and defeat against John Douglas (Figueroa, 2013). The research was established which revealed the truth that the referee was the inherited father of John Douglas.

There was a disrupted brawl that was raised among the spectators who were watching the fight from the gallery. This eruption took place as a result of the controversial decisions that were spotted out by the referee in action (Wamsley, 2010). An American flyweight boxer had to face that certain humiliation at the time of the running match. His name was Hyman Miller, who had to encounter such incident during the first round of the sponsored competition (Chappell, 2014). This uncanny situation took place, and he was pushed out of the entire tournament according to the decisions made by the boxing team. However, the matter was gradually pulled under the control in reference to the US President of the time Mac Arthur, who settled the matter by asking the Board to change their decision (Woods, 2016).

Another lightweight boxer of the period, known as Thomas Hamilton-Brown, formerly belonged from South Africa; he lost in the very first round due to a split decision. After the survey units conducted their respective research, concluded the matter that the actual honor would be credited to Brown, but, somehow the few among the ruined judges altered the score marks (Boddy, 2013). At a much later time, Thomas Hamilton-Brown was not capable to gain weight and thus he was disqualified from the match.

Conclusion

Doping is an important fact which needs to grab the attention of the readers and the spectators. Panama Lewis had the worst case ever. The survey teams are making efforts, and this issue needs a major concern. The crucial demand in the world of boxing is the lack of a single governing body. The arrangement of the annuities, revelation related to the full money terms and least uniform contracts that existed among the promoters and the boxers need an immediate settlement. Thus, enough opportunities are underlying the arena of sports and the integrity in this regard can be disfigured at ease.

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