Olympic Boxing Controversy: Sport Has Lost Tremendous Credibility in London

Whether on the professional or amateur level, the sport of boxing's credibility has not had a good year in 2012, and controversy on the Olympic stage is the last thing it needed.

The sport on the professional level saw significant backlash in the U.S. after Manny Pacquiao lost to Michael Bradley despite dominating the bout and now similar events have occurred in London.

Japanese boxer Satoshi Shimizu was ruled as the loser in his fight with Magomed Abdulhamidov of Azerbaijan despite knocking his opponent down to the canvas on several occasions. Shimizu watched Abdulhamidov fall down six times in their fight, only to see the judges rule the latter as the victor.

The frustrated Japanese boxer told Reuters:

"

I was shocked about the result. He fell down so many times. Why didn't I win? I don't understand.

"

Luckily for Shimizu, he was able to win his appeal regarding the fight but that doesn't mean all is well and good. No boxer should ever have to appeal a judges' decision to obtain the one that should have been ruled in the first place. It doesn't take an aficionado on the sport to realize who won a fight as lopsided as the one Shimizu was apart of.

Pacquiao also saw his decision against Bradley reversed, but I'm sure if you asked him, he wouldn't show much jubilation over that ruling. Appeals and re-counts don't matter in the world of boxing because there's still footage out there in the world that shows the initial winner.

Unfortunately for boxing, the controversy didn't stop with Shimizu's fight in London as another incident drew headlines. Iran's Ali Mazaheri was quoted by Reuters saying that he believes his bout with Jose Larduet Gomez was fixed after he was disqualified by the judges.

Mazaheri was disqualified for continuously holding onto Mazaheri during the fight. Luckily for the sport, this is not as huge a controversy considering the rules state that holding onto your opponent repeatedly will turn into a disqualification.

This situation is more of Mazaheri getting publicity due to crying fix, but sometimes that's all it takes for people to begin their skepticism.

Boxing can't control loudmouths like Mazaheri from voicing his frustration, but hopefully the sport's judges won't be angering their competitors enough for them to do so.

The ideal situation for the sport is for the rest of the London Games to show some great bouts that don't make headlines for any other reason than to report the victors and recap fights.