Joe Joyce is to be awarded Olympic gold five years after losing to Tony Yoka at Rio 2016

[Enlightened-One]

"Joe Joyce is to be awarded Olympic gold five years after losing to Tony Yoka at Rio 2016"

Britain's Joe Joyce is set to be upgraded to an Olympic gold medal five years after his controversial defeat to Tony Yoka at Rio 2016, reports say.

Yoka beat Joyce to gold in Rio, Brazil FIVE years ago but the result is 'likely' to be overturned after an investigation into allegations of widespread corruption in the judging of fights and the appointment of referees and judges, according to The Daily Mail.

The results of the findings are due to be published later today, per the report.

Joyce struck gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and competed at the 2015 World Championships where he won the bronze medal before being controversially denied by the judges in the final of the men's super-heavyweight boxing in Rio.

Britain's Joe Joyce is set to be upgraded to an Olympic gold medal five years after his controversial defeat to Tony Yoka at Rio 2016, reports say.

Yoka beat Joyce to gold in Rio, Brazil FIVE years ago but the result is 'likely' to be overturned after an investigation into allegations of widespread corruption in the judging of fights and the appointment of referees and judges, according to The Daily Mail.

The results of the findings are due to be published later today, per the report.

Thoughts?

[Frede6]

From what I ve heard, it might be the opposite. In any case, Yoka is confirmed as the Olympic champion.

[goose 5]

Too bad Roy Jones Jr. can't be upgraded too.

[locoxelbox]

No way they will give Joyce a gold medal on this report alone. The evidence, though it´s probably true, is very weak to hold in court. Apparently there were a lot of small movements who were put in place to allow for decisions to go certain way but from what I read there is still no definite proof that one actual bout was setup. And there are other bouts which are much more suspicious than this one, where two judges actually scored it for Joyce (who was hugely ineffective in this bout in my opinion).

[margaret thatcher]

No way they will give Joyce a gold medal on this report alone. The evidence, though it´s probably true, is very weak to hold in court. Apparently there were a lot of small movements who were put in place to allow for decisions to go certain way but from what I read there is still no definite proof that one actual bout was setup. And there are other bouts which are much more suspicious than this one, where two judges actually scored it for Joyce (who was hugely ineffective in this bout in my opinion).

you thought tall tony deserved the win my man?

[locoxelbox]

Yes, I actually do. I had it 29-28 at the time, not sure which round I gave to Joyce, probably the last. I rewatched it just now and could easily see it 30-27 to Yoka.

Obviously I understand those who favor Joyce but that´s not the way amateur boxing typically is scored. Remember these judges got their training during the scoring machine era where only clear punches (mostly to the head) were rewarded.

I wrote in this forum back then:
Sorry to disagree but I thought Yoka won it fair and square. Not much quality punching from Joyce and all blows he takes are very clear.

Here is another comment I wrote:
I can´t believe people are saying Joyce was robbed. He was totally ineffective. Yoka fought a smart fight and deserved the victory. And the World Championships bout was even more clear than this one. The WCH final against Dychko might have been a bit controversial though.

One comment from a fan on youtube sums it up pretty well I think:
He wasn't connecting. Yoka was covering up well, and connecting with his counter punches. Joyce was very busy, put in a lot of work, but was getting very little reward in terms of actually troubling his opponent. 1st and 2nd times I watched this I thought Joyce was robbed, 3rd time I watched it I saw what the judges saw; Joyce wasn't connecting. Yoka's counter punches were connecting quite often and straight to the head.

[Enlightened-One]

From what I ve heard, it might be the opposite. In any case, Yoka is confirmed as the Olympic champion.

A lot of reputable sources are reporting the same story.

The enquiry was commissioned by the AIBA and Professor Richard McLaren's report definitely details suspicions over Joyce’s super-heavyweight final defeat to France’s Tony Yoka.

I honestly don't know what will happen.

It doesn't really affect things too much for Joe either way, I guess.

Anyway, apparently the same report details similar concerns with the 2012 Olympics too.

And I thought AJ was was very fortunate to gain the nod in at least two of his bouts during that tournament.

[JamesPhilips]

Robbing Joyce of the gold medal meant a loss of 100s of thousands of pounds in his career possibly more. Anyway the best outcome would be for Yoka and Joe to fight now as a pro. All this would be great publicity for the fight.

[Enlightened-One]

Robbing Joyce of the gold medal meant a loss of 100s of thousands of pounds in his career possibly more. Anyway the best outcome would be for Yoka and Joe to fight now as a pro. All this would be great publicity for the fight.

Joe is the mandatory challenger for the WBO world heavyweight title.

I don't think Yoka is someone he'd consider facing at this point in time. He's got bigger fish to fry.

Joe Joyce is 36 years of age. Time isn't on his side.

I know that Joe Joyce has recently tried making fights with Joseph Parker and Luis Ortiz, but they were both rejected.

This might sound hypocritical, but I’d actually like to see Joyce face Filip Hrgovic, because both of these guys are in line for mandatory shots for the WBO & IBF titles. This would eliminate one of them from world title shot contention.

This would also be an ideal meaningful stay-busy bout for Joyce.

The Brit beat the Croatian in the WSB and Joyce’s resume in the pro ranks is vastly superior than Hrgovic’s.

I’d rather see the winner of the Usyk-Joshua rematch face the winner of the Fury-Wilder rematch.

This won’t happen if the winner of both match-ups are tied up performing mandatories against Whyte, Joyce and Hrgovic.

[JamesPhilips]

Robbing Joyce of the gold medal meant a loss of 100s of thousands of pounds in his career possibly more. Anyway the best outcome would be for Yoka and Joe to fight now as a pro. All this would be great publicity for the fight.

Joe is the mandatory challenger for the WBO world heavyweight title.

I don't think Yoka is someone he'd consider facing at this point in time. He's got bigger fish to fry.

Joe Joyce is 36 years of age. Time isn't on his side.

I know that Joe Joyce has recently tried making fights with Joseph Parker and Luis Ortiz, but they were both rejected.

This might sound hypocritical, but I’d actually like to see Joyce face Filip Hrgovic, because both of these guys are in line for mandatory shots for the WBO & IBF titles. This would eliminate one of them from world title shot contention.

This would also be an ideal meaningful stay-busy bout for Joyce.

The Brit beat the Croatian in the WSB and Joyce’s resume in the pro ranks is vastly superior than Hrgovic’s.

I’d rather see the winner of the Usyk-Joshua rematch face the winner of the Fury-Wilder rematch.

This won’t happen if the winner of both match-ups are tied up performing mandatories against Whyte, Joyce and Hrgovic.

I get it with the mandatories…… but the Yoka match would be way bigger and would lead to justice of Yoka being beaten down by Joe (assuming that would happen.)

How big a name is Yoka in France? I would assume the show would sell well there too

[Enlightened-One]

"Rio Olympics: Boxer Joe Joyce 'trusts' he will be awarded gold medal after investigation finds results were manipulated"

British boxer Joe Joyce "trusts" he will be awarded an Olympic gold medal after an independent investigation found officials manipulated the outcome of matches at Rio 2016.

Joyce's super heavyweight final, in which he lost to France's Tony Yoka, was one of 11 "suspicious" bouts.

Professor Richard McLaren, the head of the investigation, said a system for the manipulation of bouts was in place.

"I firmly believe I was the winner and deserved the gold," Joyce said.

The 36-year-old, who said the discovery of manipulation was "sad to see" added: "On the day I did not get that decision and at the time I accepted that.

"I have scanned the McLaren report and have read that there was corruption in [governing body] AIBA and that corruption affected the result of my gold medal match with Tony Yoka.

"If corruption has taken place, and it appears that it has, I trust AIBA and the IOC [International Olympic Committee] will ensure the integrity of the sport is upheld and award me the gold medal.

"I will be considering the report in detail with my legal team and await the decision of AIBA and the IOC. Corruption should never be allowed to succeed."

In his report, Professor McLaren said the "seeds had been sown" for the corruption years before the Rio Games.

He found the manipulation structure within AIBA was made possible because key personnel decided the rules did not apply to them.

The key to the success of the corruption was the "connivance, approval and complicit acknowledgement and support" by the then-executive director Karim Bouzidi and then-president Wu Ching-kuo.

The IOC has not yet commented on the findings of the investigation.

[Tarquin Tarpaulin IV]

No way they will give Joyce a gold medal on this report alone. The evidence, though it´s probably true, is very weak to hold in court. Apparently there were a lot of small movements who were put in place to allow for decisions to go certain way but from what I read there is still no definite proof that one actual bout was setup. And there are other bouts which are much more suspicious than this one, where two judges actually scored it for Joyce (who was hugely ineffective in this bout in my opinion).

Much of what you say is simply not true.

I have a copy of the full 152 page report and the evidence is damning. Allegations of corruption go back way before Rio and the true picture is one of a blatant disregard for the values of competitive sport.

Officials were corrupted or shown the door. That's not to say that all were corrupt but it is inconceivable that anyone working at that level would not have been aware of how the system worked.

Regarding Joyce v Yoka
Yokas earlier bouts were looked at with one of concern believed to have given him an easier route to the final.

'According to the bout sheets, the final against Joyce (GBR) was a much closer contest, with Yoka
again winning 2:1 on points (but only 3:2 on points if all 5 judges’ scores were counted). This
means that the result would not have been assured in favour of Yoka, and could have been
reversed, had different judges’ scores have been picked under the random selection process.
Emre Aydin (TUR), providing the biggest margin in favour of Yoka (30:27)'

[IRONFIST]

I doubt it, it would mean the IOC admitting to being corrupt, something the corrupt blighters would never do.

[cormack]

Likely to be is not the same thing

[locoxelbox]

No way they will give Joyce a gold medal on this report alone. The evidence, though it´s probably true, is very weak to hold in court. Apparently there were a lot of small movements who were put in place to allow for decisions to go certain way but from what I read there is still no definite proof that one actual bout was setup. And there are other bouts which are much more suspicious than this one, where two judges actually scored it for Joyce (who was hugely ineffective in this bout in my opinion).

Much of what you say is simply not true.

I have a copy of the full 152 page report and the evidence is damning. Allegations of corruption go back way before Rio and the true picture is one of a blatant disregard for the values of competitive sport.

Officials were corrupted or shown the door. That's not to say that all were corrupt but it is inconceivable that anyone working at that level would not have been aware of how the system worked.

Regarding Joyce v Yoka
Yokas earlier bouts were looked at with one of concern believed to have given him an easier route to the final.

'According to the bout sheets, the final against Joyce (GBR) was a much closer contest, with Yoka
again winning 2:1 on points (but only 3:2 on points if all 5 judges’ scores were counted). This
means that the result would not have been assured in favour of Yoka, and could have been
reversed, had different judges’ scores have been picked under the random selection process.
Emre Aydin (TUR), providing the biggest margin in favour of Yoka (30:27)'

I have also read the 152 page report and can´t see the evidence where they show clear proof that the Yoka-Joyce bout was fixed?
The fact that 2 judges voted for Joyce means he could have won if the computer had randomly selected those judges. The report highlights other bouts which are more suspicious than that bout, including Ishaish (JOR) v Mihai Nistor, which would have given Yoka an easier path to the final (though Yoka had actually beaten Nistor twice before).

There have been plenty of news articles saying they have found proof of the Roy Jones Jr-Si Hun Park was fixed but not in AIBA or IOC reports and the result was never overturned and I believe they need to come up with more evidence to overturn this decision as well. And if they overturn this decision they likely would have to change 4 or 5 more bout results and some of them aren´t even in the medal stages.

[cormack]

Robbing Joyce of the gold medal meant a loss of 100s of thousands of pounds in his career possibly more. Anyway the best outcome would be for Yoka and Joe to fight now as a pro. All this would be great publicity for the fight.

Joe is the mandatory challenger for the WBO world heavyweight title.

I don't think Yoka is someone he'd consider facing at this point in time. He's got bigger fish to fry.

Joe Joyce is 36 years of age. Time isn't on his side.

I know that Joe Joyce has recently tried making fights with Joseph Parker and Luis Ortiz, but they were both rejected.

This might sound hypocritical, but I’d actually like to see Joyce face Filip Hrgovic, because both of these guys are in line for mandatory shots for the WBO & IBF titles. This would eliminate one of them from world title shot contention.

This would also be an ideal meaningful stay-busy bout for Joyce.

The Brit beat the Croatian in the WSB and Joyce’s resume in the pro ranks is vastly superior than Hrgovic’s.

I’d rather see the winner of the Usyk-Joshua rematch face the winner of the Fury-Wilder rematch.

This won’t happen if the winner of both match-ups are tied up performing mandatories against Whyte, Joyce and Hrgovic.

I get it with the mandatories…… but the Yoka match would be way bigger and would lead to justice of Yoka being beaten down by Joe (assuming that would happen.)

How big a name is Yoka in France? I would assume the show would sell well there too

Yoka is not exactly a household name here , they dont follow boxing anywhere near as much as the Brits / Yanks .
Thats why him and his wife train and fight in the US as much as possible .

[funso banjo baby]

I would definitely bring Yoka to the UK for maybe two fights against Brits and then set up a nice grudge match with Joyce at the end of 2022

I'd watch that

[Cyclops]

I would definitely bring Yoka to the UK for maybe two fights against Brits and then set up a nice grudge match with Joyce at the end of 2022

I'd watch that

What 'Brits' are they going to find to fight him? He's already fought Dave Allen, who's about as recognisable to the casual mainstream as you can get before you hit the ceiling of guys who are aiming higher and have already fought better opponents than Yoka. Who's he going to fight? Hughie Fury? David Price? I can't see either happening. Maybe Nathan Gorman? But I don't think that would raise his profile much. Daniel Dubois could be made I suppose, as a kind of redemption for the loss against Joyce and to use Yoka's scalp as a carrot to make the rematch. But they'd only take that if they were confident that Dan would win. I think that confidence is gone for the moment. Anybody else and it's way down the card. It won't get him noticed.

Yoka needs to look elsewhere. Joyce is at world level now and is a mandatory to fight a champion. Yoka will have to work his way into the top 10 to stand any chance. Maybe he could take on his countryman Takam and see if he could do a better job?

[Enlightened-One]

Yoka should take the Hrgovic bout and go down the IBF route, but some Youtube channels are claiming the Frenchman rejected that bout.

In terms of Whyte, Dubois, Parker and Hughie Fury, they wouldn’t gain much from beating Yoka, because all these guys are in contention for shots at the WBC, WBA & WBO titles.

Yoka is only rated highly by the IBF, hence the reason why he should chase Hrgovic to become their mandatory challenger.

But as I said before, some Youtubers are claiming he rejected that bout.

[KiwiRider]

Yoka should take the Hrgovic bout and go down the IBF route, but some Youtube channels are claiming the Frenchman rejected that bout.

In terms of Whyte, Dubois, Parker and Hughie Fury, they wouldn’t gain much from beating Yoka, because all these guys are in contention for shots at the WBC, WBA & WBO titles.

Yoka is only rated highly by the IBF, hence the reason why he should chase Hrgovic to become their mandatory challenger.

But as I said before, some Youtubers are claiming he rejected that bout.

Hemi Ahio is pretty keen to face Yoka after he has competed in the Amir Khan Crypto event.
https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/679269

[Enlightened-One]

Yoka should take the Hrgovic bout and go down the IBF route, but some Youtube channels are claiming the Frenchman rejected that bout.

In terms of Whyte, Dubois, Parker and Hughie Fury, they wouldn’t gain much from beating Yoka, because all these guys are in contention for shots at the WBC, WBA & WBO titles.

Yoka is only rated highly by the IBF, hence the reason why he should chase Hrgovic to become their mandatory challenger.

But as I said before, some Youtubers are claiming he rejected that bout.

Hemi Ahio is pretty keen to face Yoka after he has competed in the Amir Khan Crypto event.
https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/679269

Admittedly, I don't know anything about Hemi, other than the fact he's never competed in the amateur ranks and he's also in his thirties.

His record seems a tad weird to me, why has he recently fought Julius Long twice (a fighter that hasn't won a bout for the last five years)?

Hemi has only fought 17 times during the course of his eight year career, whereby his opponents have failed to win a combined total of 157 bouts.

The handful of unbeaten guys he's faced are either debutants or novices that had practically no amateur experience, with all these fighters subsequently proven to be journeymen.

I haven't seen Hemi fight though, so for all I know, he could very well end up being the second coming of Joe Louis. However, his resume currently stinks - and I mean Mark De Mori bad!

[Cyclops]

Yoka should take the Hrgovic bout and go down the IBF route, but some Youtube channels are claiming the Frenchman rejected that bout.

In terms of Whyte, Dubois, Parker and Hughie Fury, they wouldn’t gain much from beating Yoka, because all these guys are in contention for shots at the WBC, WBA & WBO titles.

Yoka is only rated highly by the IBF, hence the reason why he should chase Hrgovic to become their mandatory challenger.

But as I said before, some Youtubers are claiming he rejected that bout.

Hemi Ahio is pretty keen to face Yoka after he has competed in the Amir Khan Crypto event.
https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/679269

Admittedly, I don't know anything about Hemi, other than the fact he's never competed in the amateur ranks and he's also in his thirties.

His record seems a tad weird to me, why has he recently fought Julius Long twice (a fighter that hasn't won a bout for the last five years)?

Hemi has only fought 17 times during the course of his eight year career, whereby his opponents have failed to win a combined total of 157 bouts.

The handful of unbeaten guys he's faced are either debutants or novices that had practically no amateur experience, with all these fighters subsequently proven to be journeymen.

I haven't seen Hemi fight though, so for all I know, he could very well end up being the second coming of Joe Louis. However, his resume currently stinks - and I mean Mark De Mori bad!

I was curious because I like Islanders- naturally the toughest people in the world sometimes it seems- so I did a little bit of research. He's too small for modern heavyweights being 6', although he seems very lean at 230ish, so although he's short he's obviously a bit of a tank. It's hard to tell because he seems to be put in with giant blob fighters who give him no movement at all, so he doesn't even seem to have been required to utilise any footwork and looks like someone whaling away on a punchbag. He also gets hit a lot.

I've noticed Julius Long being something of a fixture on the antipodean scene, fighting Lucas Browne and Ugonoh (remember him? I actually thought he might turn out to be pretty good at one point) and it seems like he moved to New Zealand somewhere around 2016 and makes a living as a journeyman there, like a sort of Poundland Dereck Chisora, 'testing' all the up and coming 'talent.' I watched a few rounds of Ahio-Long and the boxing crowds are a little less discerning over there aren't they? With the announcers enthusiastically talking up Long's size and punching power "that would trouble anyone in the division!" It's a lovely place to live and Long probably gets paid enough to eat BBQ and sit on his porch and just turn up to be a punchbag every now and again. He doesn't look like he trains. Fair play to him.

Anyway, I can't see Hemi getting a Yoka fight anytime soon.

[JMac]

Cheating has gone on for far too many Olympics and other world amateur boxing tournaments. 2016 isn't the first time by a long shot. Roy Jones was one match that everyone knows was fixed. 3 of the 5 judges admitted to taking bribes. Yet the IOC won't overturn it. They are just as corrupt as AIBA. I was a R/J at the Beijing Olympics. At tournaments leading up to the Olympics, the countries that are known to cheat will test the other R/J's to see who they can get to. They want to give you nice gifts and if you take it, they'll keep giving you more so when it becomes time for a favor, they expect you to do it. Typically it's the eastern Euro and Asian countries that will cheat. Not all but some. It seems to be in their DNA. I refereed Artur Beterbiev's fight in Beijing against the Chinese boxer. I didn't know the fix was in for the Chinese boxer or I would have taken points from him for holding which I probably should have done anyway but I didn't want to affect the outcome of the fight. If the judging was fair, I wanted the fighters to determine who won. Every time the Chinese boxer held, he would break when I told him so I was Ok with that. I ended up judging his next fight against a Kazak fighter who I thought won, I was on the short end of a 4-1 decision. In the finals he boxed Kenny Egan of Ireland and I went into the Secretary Generals room to watch the fight since his TV had the scores. The R/J's were stuck in a room outside of the field of play for the whole tournament and our TV did not have the live scores that they were showing that Olympics. He told me to leave and I told him to F off. There was only one more fight left and I wasn't working that and knew I was done with these f*ckers so I said I'm watching this fight with the scores. Anyway Egan would land a punch and the score went up for the Chinese boxer and Ho Kim the SG was like what is happening here, what are these judges looking at. I replied, you exactly what's happening, you picked them . Egan should have been the gold medal winner that night and he got screwed. One of too many who got their hearts broken.

[Thomastearns]

Historical revisionism is a real thorny problem. One that I feel is best left alone, even in such an obviously deserving case as Joyce's.

It's an intrinsic part of all sporting competiton to do your best to win and then afterwards to accept the result.

Shake hands and move on. That's the way it was done. That's sport, or at least it used to be. Anything else is simply not cricket.

Even in the special case of retroactive failed drug tests, there needs to be some time limit or else sporting history itself will be undermined.

For example, with modern testing it becomes possible to detect historical drug cheating that went undetected at the time.

Just imagine if all the blood/urine/hair samples from the past half a dozen Olympic Games that have been preserved were to be tested today.

What would it do to the record books/legacy etc?
Everything reduced to a sham?

Of course the lawyers will be rubbing their hands if this new vein of employment became available for them to mine indefinitely.

At least one half of the entertainment industry is devoted to various legal machinations (many bands spend more time in court than in the recording studio, ditto actors/agents etc) but boxing is already under serious threat of being almost entirely swallowed up by them.

In the meantime all of the fun of sport threatens to casually slip through our fingers.

[Tony1244]

Upgrade RJJ and Holyfield too.