Now it is the turn of Dr Wu’s AIBA, also known as the International Boxing Association, to be drawn deeply into this unseemly quagmire.
The fistic fiefdom of the imperious Dr Wu Chung-kuo is up to its neck in a financial mess of its own making.
It has been forced to address claims of such financial mismanagement that AIBA risks bankruptcy having been drawn into a civil war over demands it immediately pays back millions of pounds in loans and investments it does not have.
The revelation comes amid an increasingly bitter power struggle inside AIBA which has led to the resignations of its treasurer and finance director following claims they were sidelined by president Wu.
An “Interim Management Committee” was set up last week after 13 out of 15 members of AIBA’s Executive Committee proclaimed a vote of no confidence against WU during.
Last month Terry Smith, the Welsh AIBA executive committee member who had written to president Wu and other senior members of AIBA to demand answers to some of the concerns raised, was arbitrarily axed.
Smith immediately took AIBA to a Swiss court and was able to overturn the decision.
It was not the first time Dr Wu’s authority had been challenged by a Brit, or that a disturbing controversy had flared on his watch.
In 2011 Paul King, a former CEO of England ABA and an AIBA Council member, incurred the wrath of the world governing body by mounting an unsuccessful campaign to challenge Dr Wu for the Presidency of world boxing and attempting to postpone the AIBA congress.
King was suspended for two years but had this ban lifted on appeal the Court for Arbitration in Sport.
Then there was the controversy at the Rio Olympics last year when AIBA sent home six judges and referees amid The Irish boxer Michael Conlan railed against AIBA on live television declaring: “They’re f****** cheats.
“They’re known for being cheats. Amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top.”
There is certainly much to admire in what Dr Wu he has done for what used to be ‘amateur’ boxing, And whatever the architect of World Series Boxing, APB and the introduction of female boxers and professionals – of sorts – into the Olympics may be accused of, lack of ambition is not on that agenda.
But has the 70-year-Taiwanese-born, English-educated construction mogul who has run AIBA for 11 years now overreached himself in his relentless quest to become the overlord of boxing in all its forms?
Has he taken his eye off the punchball in pursuit of that impossible dream of global domination instead of keeping AIBA’s financial house in order?
He insists not.
A man of charm and intelligence, while he may have power and influence within his own realm he lacks the street smartness of those who orchestrate the recognised professional side of the game.
Meantime AIBA obviously has a bitter internal fight on its hands, with its resilient champion on the ropes, just as Klitschko was against Fury and Joshua. Maybe, like Wlad, the one-time Impaler, it is time to call it a day.
