By Frank Warren, courtesy of The Daily Star

BOXING getting kicked out of the Olympics would be a disaster for the sport.

But it is about time the amateur side of the business cleaned up its act.

For too long now bad decisions and political in-fighting have led to chaos in the sport.

But the Rio 2016 Olympics topped the lot with some of the worst judging in history.

Belfast’s Michael Conlan, who fights on our December 22 card in Manchester, got it right when he called out the officials for corruption live on TV in Brazil.

Conlan had just suffered a horrendous miscarriage of justice against Russian Vladimir Nikitin which cost him a medal.

Now stars of the future could be denied a chance to ever represent their countries at the pinnacle of amateur sport.

That is all down to the row over the election of a new president, which takes place this weekend.

Uzbekistan’s Gafur Rakhimov goes up against Kazakhstan’s Serik Konakbayev for the right to lead the sport.

Rakhimov has been labelled as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals” by the United States Treasury’s Sanctions list.

He denies any involvement in crime but the IOC wrote to the International Boxing Association (AIBA) this year to warn them it would be “in the best interests of the sport” if only “candidates benefiting from a clean situation” stand for election.

Whoever gets the nod they should be given the chance to clean up the sport and save it from being thrown out of the Olympic Games.

That would hurt the sport. Some of the biggest stars have won Olympic gold before turning pro including greats Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Closer to home there is Anthony Joshua, Nicola Adams, James DeGale and Luke Campbell.

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Tune into Miguel Berchelt's fight with Miguel Roman for the WBC super featherweight strap live on BoxNation from midnight.