OLYMPICS:With the London Games just weeks away the Belfast boxer is angry and confused, writes JOHNNY WATTERSON

BEIJING BRONZE medallist Paddy Barnes has called the ranking system in international boxing “a joke” and reacted angrily yesterday as his ranking fell from six in the world to totally off the scale (the top 33 are ranked).

The Belfast light-flyweight, who was European Champion in 2010 could not understand how he could be ranked six in June and nowhere in July. There is also concern about the implications for Barnes when he goes to the Olympics, with the possibility that as an unranked and unseeded boxer he could meet the world number one in the first round.

Ranked six in the world he would certainly have been seeded, although that too is shrouded in confusion.

“I’ve gone from sixth in the world to being totally off the radar. It’s a joke, if you ask me, because there have been no tournaments this year that you can get ranked from,” said Barnes.

“After Trabzon (Olympic qualifying tournament) I actually moved up one place, but now I’ve gone from sixth to not being ranked at all in the World. There are other people in the top 10 who have moved up, so how do you explain that? I tweeted the World Boxing organisation (AIBA), but who am I? I’m nobody to them. They’ll just brush me to the side and tell me to shut-up.

“I could have to fight the world champion in the first fight. I’m confident that I can beat anybody, but it’s just making my job harder. I just want to put out the fact that the rankings that have come out are unfair and stupid.”

The rankings are based on international competition, including performances at the World Senior and Youth Championships, Olympic Games, Olympic qualifiers and Continental Championships (European, Asian, America) over a two-year rolling period. It means results from 2010, when Barnes won his European gold in Moscow, are no longer part of the ranking equation and simply disappear.

How that affects seeding for the Olympics remains unclear as the governing body said yesterday the seeding arrangements for the Games will not be fully explained until July 27th in London’s ExCel Arena, where the boxing competition takes place.

“The seeding commission will initially meet next week in Bangkok (around the AIBA EC meeting) but then will finalise the seeding procedure right after the general weigh-in since we could always have boxers not making it or changing from weight category. This is very hypothetic but we have to cover all possibilities,” explained an email from AIBA’s Sebastien Gillet.

It’s all as clear as mud but it doesn’t help Barnes understand his overnight plummet in the eyes of international boxing less than four weeks before the most important competition of his career. One thing that is clear is if he had retained his ranking he would have been seeded in London.

“Aye, I’d be seeded,” said the 25-year-old. “But it’s a disgrace. It’s just terrible. It has to be a computer malfunction, that’s the only way I could see it. I only found out this morning. I’m not happy with it whatsoever. I’ll be bringing it up all the time because this can’t happen.”

Given the confused way Joe Ward was treated and the nonsensical email that was sent out to explain why he wasn’t getting a wild card into London 2012, it is difficult to share Barnes’ optimism that the ranking and seeding will become more transparent, or, that something will happen.

The AIBA statement explaining why Ward was not getting the wildcard for London said: “We regrettably found out that your boxer (Ward) does not meet the qualification to be the next best boxer in your continent.”

Ward is the European light-heavyweight champion and ranked five in the world by the AIBA. The Montenegrin boxer, Bosco Draskovic, who received the wildcard, is ranked 25 places below the Irishman and much less of a threat to the rest of the draw, one would have to say.

That is born out by Ward’s ranking that actually moved up from five in the world to its current four.

It appears now that Barnes may have to wait until just before the Games begin to find out where he will be placed in the draw.