Vido Loncar, a member of the Croatian boxing team, was banned for life from the sport after his vicious attack against referee Magej Dziurgot at the 2014 European Youth Championships in Zagreb, Croatia last Monday. The penalty was meted by the International Boxing Association (AIBA), the federation tasked to oversee over 78 national boxing organisations from across the world, and was also levied against Loncar’s two coaches who were present during the incident.

AIBA President Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu of Chinese-Taipei promptly sent a letter of apology to the Polish Boxing Association (PBA) after the said incident, which was caught on camera and has gone viral over the last 24 hours.

“AIBA and the entire boxing family have zero tolerance for this sort of behaviour,” Wu said in the letter. “As a President of AIBA, I truly feel sorry for Mr Dziurgot and his family concerning the incident. I would like to send you my strongest commitments to apply all possible measurements to punish and remove all individuals who brought AIBA and our sport down as well as to prevent this type of incident from taking place in our competitions ever again.”

It was indeed a black eye for the sport as the boxer’s attack on the referee has reached the mainstream media and has gotten the attention of the entire sports world. Videos of the incident from different camera angles have garnered north of 50,000 views, and even more as it also reach social media Facebook and Twitter as of Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Aside from the boxer’s life-long suspension from the sport his coaches’ certifications were also revoked temporarily. No immediate reaction regarding the ban and penalties was gathered from the Croatian boxer's side.

The vicious attack showed Loncar punching the Polish referee moments before the decision for the bout was about to be announced. Earlier footage showed that Loncar, who was fighting a Lithuanian fighter named Algirdas Baniullis, was being counted out by the referee and was on his way to a technical knockout (TKO) loss. Loncar was detained after the attack.

Watch the videos of the Croatian boxer's vicious attack on ref below:

(YouTube/LoveSport)

(YouTube/joebeimel)

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