FURY IN THE RING
Fighter launches astonishing f-word rant on live TV
Ireland’s Michael Conlan handed down foul-mouthed guilty verdicts on the judges he blamed for defeat in his first fight in the bantamweight tournament he was favourite to win.
‘They’re f ****** cheats,’ he raged on live TV. ‘They’re known for being cheats. amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top.’
This has been a wretched Games for the Irish boxers, with even their golden girl Katie Taylor failing to defend the Olympic title she won in london.
Conlan, the no1 seed, was judged the loser by two rounds to one on all three cards. He said: ‘My dreams are shattered. I will never box again for aIBa [International Boxing association].’
He also accused the officials of cheating Taylor and Joe Ward, another of his compatriots who was expected to do well in rio.
There were boos from the contingent of Irish fans here who believed Conlan, their last hope of a medal, had won.
For my money Conlan was the victor, but only narrowly. He opened himself up to the risk of this considerable upset by boxing most of the first round on the back foot against no 2 seed Vladimir nikitin.
since his rival is russian that will raise questions about the validity of aIBa clearing every member of the russian team of involvement in the doping scandal which engulfed sport in that country.
Conlan is entitled to any suspicions he may harbour on that account. as for the bout itself, it would not have been a surprise if he had been given the first round but nor was it a tremendous shock that the three votes went to the russian. Then the judges all went for Conlan in the second.
The third round was the real bone of contention. Conlan was convinced he had won it but this was a scrappy three minutes and again the judges were unanimous in giving it to nikitin.
Conlan’s views on the outcome were angry and strident: ‘even after what happened to Katie I didn’t think this could happen to me. not with the whole of Ireland watching. But it did. With people watching decisions like this, Olympic boxing is dead. It’s about whoever pays the most money; whoever has the most influence. The russian didn’t believe he won. I didn’t believe he won. The referee didn’t believe he won. I came here for the gold but now I will never box in the Olympics again.’
His father and trainer, John, shouted: ‘shame on them. shame on them.’
Conlan went so far as to send out a tweet in the hope of it being seen by russian president Vladimir Putin: ‘Hey Vlad, how much did they charge you, bro?’
The three judges — a Brazilian, a sri lankan and a Pole — were among five kept in a closed room without their mobile phones and selected by computer 10 minutes before the fight.
To fix a tournament would be almost impossible and require a fortune to bribe so many officials.
Ironically, there have been fewer controversies than usual here. after all the confusion caused in past Games by having judges push buttons to record accurate punches, aIBa switched to the professional system of 10 points to the winner of a round, nine or less to the loser.
They have also tried to prevent corruption by choosing three scores for each round at random.
Those measures have improved the efficiency and credibility of the amateur game but no method is perfect.
Certainly not in Irish eyes, which are definitely not smiling.