Conlan was convinced he defeated Nikitin, a Russian, but the decision went 3-0 against him.
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Michael Conlan departed the Rio Olympics with a foul-mouthed tirade after finding himself on the wrong end of a controversial unanimous decision against Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin in their bantamweight quarter-final on Tuesday. Statistical analysis indicated that Conlan likely should have won the fight, but judges unanimously gave all three rounds to Nikitin.
AIBA has admitted that there have been “a handful of decisions” at the 2016 Olympic Games that were “not at the level expected”, which has led to some referees and judges being dropped from the competition. I don’t give a f*** that I’m cursing on TV. You know what, I’ve a big career ahead of me. They’re cheating bastards who are paying everybody.
On Wednesday night, Conlan appeared on Off The Ball where he doubled down on his condemnation for the current state of amateur boxing and continued to question its legitimacy.
Conlan later took to Twitter to land one last jab, this one directed at Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The official said: “Michael is a current world champion and he came here with high expectations”.
Some judges complained they were having trouble transitioning fom the old scoring system to the new one and the AIBA’s executive committee conceded it was very concerned with the scoring after the Conlan and Levit fights. None of the decisions, AIBA said, would be overturned.
World amateur boxing governing body AIBA admits to officiating problems at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. I’m here to win Olympic gold and my dream has been shattered.
“We have a job to do with our coaches to train their boxers towards the criteria which AIBA is looking for, which is what we call a technically sound boxer”, he said.
U.S. coach Billy Walsh, who is Irish, joined in the criticism of the judging after his light-welterweight Gary Russell lost a quarter-final to Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Gaibnazarov on a split decision.
Scoring systems in Olympic boxing have long provoked controversy and allegations of underhand activity.
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AIBA officials double up as referees and judges. Five judges score each bout with a computer randomly selecting which scorecards will count.
