London 2012 bronze medalist Conlan lost his quarter-final bout against Vladimir Niktin, despite completely out-boxing his opponent over three rounds, when the judges somehow found the fight in the Russian’s favour.
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Conlan implied that he has something to give young Finn and at least one of Finn’s family members responded to Conlan’s tweet, but it’s not clear at the moment if the fighter has connected with the boy yet. This story has genuinely incensed so many boxing fans around the world in recent days.
As Conlan’s attempt to win a gold medal at the Games before turning professional was cruelly taken away from him by three officials sitting ringside as they gave the result to a totally bemused and bewildered Vladimir Nikitin of Russian Federation.
This will come as little consolation to the boxers affected, however.
“Amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top”.
“AIBA will never say they were corrupt, they will say they weren’t happy with their performance”, said a highly placed source. “They’re cheating b******s”, he told reporters after losing on points in a unanimous decision that, to some observers, seemed at odds with what they had witnessed.
“They’re paying everybody. I don’t give a fuck if I’m cursing on TV”.
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.
On Tuesday the Belfast boxer said his Olympic dream had “been robbed”.
Judging controversy has often plagued the Olympics.
Judges from Brazil, Poland and Sri Lanka were working Conlan’s quarterfinal bout.
The world champion didn’t hold back when asked what he thought about the decision and branded the AIBA “cheats”.
Conlan opened up a pre-existing cut on the side of the Russian’s head inside the first round and split open another above his left eye in a fight many awarded to the Irishman.
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The number of judges – and the names – have not been released by AIBA.
