Canadian gold medallist Lennox Lewis concerned over judging at Olympic Games

There's some things you can count on to happen at every Olympic Games.

There will be a story about an athlete from a small country who finishes last in their event but warms the crowd's heart. Some athletes will make a video. And there will be a controversy (pronounced kuhn-trov-er-see if you are British) in boxing.

At the London Olympic Games there was 35-year-old Hamadou Djibo Issaka of Niger who learned to row only three months ago but became a crowd-favourite despite a technique one newspaper said "can generously be described as crude.'' The U.S. swim team's video of Call Me Maybe has over four millions views on YouTube. And there are allegations of "a fix'' in judging and referee at boxing.

Even former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis couldn't help but pass his opinion.

"What I'm concerned about is probably the judging,'' said Lewis, who won gold for Canada at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. "You never know who is going to win until the end of the fight.''

It seems knocking someone down six times in a round isn't good enough for a win. That's what happened to Japanese bantam Satoshi Shimizu who went into his last round of his fight Wednesday night against Magomed Abdulhamidov trailing by seven points but pummelled the Azerbaijani. Abdulhamidov struggled to get up after one knockdown.

The judges still awarded the fight to Abdulhamidov by a 22-17 score.

"I was shocked by the final scores," Shimizu told The Guardian newspaper. "He fell down so many times. Why didn't I win? I don't understand."

Shimizu appealed the ruling. The International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) awarded him the decision on Thursday.

The association also said referee Ishanguly Meretnyyazov from Turkmenistan has been expelled from the London Games for his handling of the bout.

The federation also suspended German referee Frank Scharmach five days for his decision to disqualify an Iranian heavyweight, and expelled technical official Aghajan Abiyev of Azerbaijan.

"I deeply regret that we had to take these decisions," AIBA President Wu Ching-Kuo said in a release. "However, our main concern has been and will always be the protection of the integrity and fair play of our competitions. I will take all possible steps to reinforce this."

In another fight Wednesday, Iranian heavyweight Ali Mazaheri suggested the fix was in after he was disqualified after being warned three times for persistent holding against Cuba's Jose Larduet Gomez. Mazaheri was leading by two points going into the second round.

"It was a fix,'' Mazaheri told Reuters. "I could have got a bronze easily if it hadn't been for that. In my previous fights I had done really well. It was a set up."

The AIBA said any time a boxer receives three warnings during a bout they are disqualified.

In December last year, an AIBA-appointed investigation committee dismissed allegations that Azerbaijan was promised two boxing gold medals at the London Olympics in exchange for a $10-million loan to the sport's ruling body.

Lewis, who has duel British and Canadian citizenship, is doing broadcast duties for BBC at the Games.

"What has impressed me is the amount of talent that's been brought together," he told The Globe and Mail.

Besides his concerns about the judging, he also would like to see some changing in amateur boxing.

"I would probably take away the head gear and change the judging system," Lewis said. "Get some judges that score all year round.''