Boxing
The List: The 10 Worst Decisions in Boxing History
1. Park Si-Hun def. Roy Jones Jr.
1988 Seoul Olympics
Seoul, South Korea
It’s strange that, considering the number of corruption scandals that have rocked the world of professional boxing, the worst decision in boxing is one that happened in the amateur ranks. A 19-year-old Roy Jones, Jr., then just a budding amateur star, was the victim of one of the most blatant judging scandals the sport has ever known.
In the 1988 Olympics, Jones dominated the final against hometown bet Park in a fight that saw the American land a whopping 86 punches to just 32 from his opponent. For some reason, though, the judging panel of five called it 3-2 in favor of the South Korean, giving Park the gold medal.
Park proved himself a class act, though, immediately coming up to Jones and apologizing for the obviously wrong decision, even inviting Jones over to the gold medal stand when the anthems were being played.
A later investigation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) found that South Korean officials had wined and dined the judges prior to the fight and all three judges voting against Jones were suspended because of it. The Moroccan judge admitted to his error and claimed Jones was clearly the winner. He voted for Park because he didn’t want the host country to be embarrassed by falling to a 5-0 sweep in the final.
The investigations led to calls for Jones to be awarded the gold medal that was taken from him, but the IOC did not reverse the ruling. The incident, though, led to the creation of a new scoring system to be used in the Olympics.
