The idea of fixed fights in boxing isn’t anything new to the sport. Perhaps more so than almost any other athletic contest, Boxing has built a decades long reputation for suspect judging, officiating, and even the occasional straight up dive. It’s one of the few sports that has an entire class of athlete known as ‘professional opponents’. Men and women booked to fight with no expectation of winning, whatsoever—brought in to provide experience and singular challenges to rising prospects as they build their records towards high money fights.
That said, the Olympics is hardly a place where fans should expect to see fighters booked in bouts they can’t win.