Teddy Atlas And Bob Papa Kicked Out Of Boxing Arena; NBC Doesn't Really Care Because No One From The U.S. Is In Contention

The International Amateur Boxing Association claimed that NBC’s announcers were “disturbing” the judges with their criticism and requested that organizers remove them from their ringside position. NBC was the only entity granted a ringside position and organizers politely suggested that maybe they take their microphones and judging critiques to the space reserved for the rest of the commoners. Since there are no Americans left to contend for a medal, NBC said thanks, but no thanks.

“NBC commentators were offered a booth in the media tribune like other broadcasters because they were very disturbing for AIBA officials - even during bouts they were not broadcasting - being located at the edge of the Field of Play,” an AIBA spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

“They claimed that since no boxers from the USA were still in the running, they didn’t want to stay anyway.”

NBC hasn’t ditched boxing altogether, though. It still has a camera on site and will record the action and then add commentary from New York. If NBC’s Olympic coverage actually came anywhere near sports reporting, or sports broadcasting, we might say this is a despicable act of censorship. But this is not censorship, it’s just two heavyweights trying to out-farce one another. It’s entertainment.

Image via Getty NBC Olympic boxing announcers leave in dispute with IBA [SI] Boxing: NBC asked to cease ringside commentary [Yahoo]

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.