Olympics Boxing 2012: Referees Suspended, Expelled in Iran and Japan-Azerbaijan Controversies

The referees from yesterday's major Olympic boxing controversies have both been hit with sanctions from AIBA, with one expelled from the games, and another suspended five days.

Turkmenistan official Ishanguly Meretnyyazov, whose third round performance in the Satoshi Shimizu (Japan) vs Magomed Abdulhamidov (Azerbaijan) bantamweight bout yesterday was dreadful, has been expelled. Meretnyyazov allowed Abdulhamidov to be floored and fall around the ring incessantly without calling any knockdowns and only giving him a single public warning.

Shimizu and Team Japan protested, and were successful in getting the decision reversed. Shimizu was originally a 22-17 loser on points.

The other major issue yesterday came in the heavyweight division, where Iranian heavyweight Ali Mazaheri was outrageously disqualified against Cuba's Jose Larduet. Mazaheri later said he felt the fight was fixed, but AIBA's official stance was that his three warnings were grounds for the disqualification, which is consistent with the rules.

But today, they've suspended German official Frank Scharmach for five days, through August 6. So they're admitting that the referee did a poor job, and even wronged the Iranian fighter, but unfortunately, Mazaheri has no chance to do anything about it beyond that. Unlike Shimizu, he won't be advancing in the Olympics.

It's something, but it's not everything.