AIBA President C K Wu has said there is "nothing to hide" in the world governing body's recently-revamped scoring system ©AIBA

AIBA President C K Wu has claimed there is "nothing to hide" in the new scoring system being used here at a World Championships for the first time. 

The new system was approved by the AIBA Extraordinary Executive Meeting last December following a thorough review.

AIBA suspended all 36 referees and judges used at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro last year pending an investigation following a series of controversial decisions.

An independent Swiss Timing electronic draw system is now being used to select the judges for each bout with the AIBA Draw Commission replaced by a single official overseeing the technology.

All five of their scorecards are used to determine the winner, instead of just three.

Judges are also placed on all four sides of the ring, while another change sees scores for each round only declared at the conclusion of a bout rather than at the end of rounds.

"Boxing is a subjective sport but we, at AIBA, have been trying to train referee judges to be the best," Wu said at the opening press conference of the World Championships. 

"This is fundamental. 

"We are pushing to make sure that referees follow this fundamental.

"We were using a computerised system earlier and we found out that it was, sometimes, not giving us the best results. 

"But now you can see that judges are more responsible for their scores. 

"At the end of each round, the scores by all the judges are visible to everyone. 

"There is nothing to hide."

Ireland's Michael Conlan, left, was among boxers to suffer a controversial defeat at Rio 2016 ©Getty Images
Ireland's Michael Conlan, left, was among boxers to suffer a controversial defeat at Rio 2016 ©Getty Images

Boxing competitions at Rio 2016 received widespread criticism due to several decisions believed to be suspect.

They included Russia's Evgeny Tishchenko winning the gold medal in the men’s heavyweight final over Kazakhstan's Vassily Levit, despite appearing to be on the back foot throughout.

Ireland's bantamweight world champion Michael Conlan was involved in one of the most controversial contests of the Games after appearing to dominate a quarter-final against Vladimir Nikitin before the Russian was awarded the victory.

Conlan launched an expletive-laden rant in a post-fight interview with Irish broadcaster RTE, where he claimed AIBA were "cheats" and that amateur boxing "stinks from the core to the very top" before departing for the professional ranks.

He will have to pay a CHF10,000 (£8,100/$10,400/€8,800) fine for his outburst if he ever decides to re-register with a National Federation and return to Olympic boxing.

There are 35 referees and judges officiating at this year’s World Championships, which begun today under a cloud.

A total of 13 of 15 members of the ruling AIBA Executive Committee opposed Wu at a meeting in Moscow last month before setting up a rival Interim Management Committee (IMC) in an attempt to bring about his removal.

An Extraordinary General Assembly is likely to be held in October in Lausanne at which national governing bodies - as statutes dictate - will decide on whether Wu retains his position.

Wu insisted on Wednesday (August 23) that all members of the IMC will be free to attend the event following claims that some had been denied accreditation. 

Today, he reiterated his message that over the next 10 days fans will witness a celebration of boxing and that the focus of attention will be placed squarely on the sport.