Mr. Wu and his colleagues in the AIBA hierarchy were the first men on the team-sheet when it came to selecting 'The Chief Enemies of Irish Sport in 2016'.
Dr. Ching Kuo Wu has held the post of President of the AIBA since 2006. As we've stated before, we prefer to know him as Dr. Wu as it makes him sound like a secondary baddie in a James Bond. We're thinking here of one of those colourful, comic relief baddies who is killed in a grizzly fashion halfway through the film.
It was Dr. Wu who delivered the uncompromising response of the AIBA to Mick Conlan after he labelled the organisation "rotten to the core."
He immediately showed his finger to the referee-judges. The IOC says this is totally unacceptable. You cannot humiliate people. They are officials. He put himself in a difficult position, I can tell you. A lot of disciplinary action will follow. You should show proper behaviour. If you are not happy about the result, you cannot humiliate in public our referee-judges. That has already drawn a lot of people's attention who want to punish him, so we are going to have a disciplinary commission for the case.
Conlan has since turned professional, signing with Top Rank Boxing in the United States, the former promoters of Muhammad Ali, and run by the legendary boxing lawyer Bob Arum.
Since that, both Conlan and Arum have delivered their own response to Mr. Wu's threats of disciplinary action.
Michael Conlan, Bob Arum y Matthew Macklin celebran la firma de Conlan con Top Rank dedicando este gesto a AIBA pic.twitter.com/FtkImeH36U
— JuliusJulianis (@julianisjulius) September 20, 2016
Kevin Byrne in The Irish Sun reported this morning that Dr. Wu had agreed to meet with the Irish Minister for State for Sport Patrick O'Donovan. However, the same article notes that Wu "ducked out of the meeting".
Last month, O'Donovan said he wanted a meeting with the AIBA to understand what happened in Rio.
He pointed out that "somebody who is awarded a bout couldn't even go on to the next one", which, to him, deserves an explanation. This is obviously a reference Vladimir Nikitin, who was very controversially awarded quarter-final bout against Conlan, and then was unable to compete in the silver medal fight as a result of his injuries.
I’m not an aficionado on boxing, I know it from watching as everybody else does occasionally.
But I want to be sure that cloud over this at the moment, that our lads want to be treated fairly, that somebody who is awarded a bout couldn’t even go on to the next one. That to me deserves an explanation.
As a Minister for Sport in Ireland, I, the sport and the people of Ireland deserve an explanation as to how that happened.
The reports indicate that such an explanation will not be offered. At least not directly to the Irish government.
