Michael Conlan, a bantamweight from Ireland, lost his Olympic quarterfinal match to Vladimir Nikitin of Russian Federation on Tuesday 29-28 on all three jugdes scorecards.
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It was one of a number of unusual verdicts at the boxing championships and Conlon was not going to take it lying down.
Conlan whipped his vest off and showed the finger to those judges at ringside who gave the fight to Nikitin.
But it was his challenge to Putin that grabbed the attention of the world including the Washington Post and many other newspapers.
Yesterday, the AIBA stated that it has sent some referees and judges home from the Games following some below par performances from the officials in Rio. Conlan, and many observers, felt that he had clearly won – and there were some sort of shenanigans involved in deciding the outcome. “They’re all f-ing cheats, simple as that”.
“I don’t give a f*** about swearing on TV”. My dreams have been shattered now. But you know what?
The most questionable decision of came when Irish boxer Michael Conlan lost to Vladimir Nikitin despite dominating over the course of three rounds. Russell’s coach then said the judging for boxing at the Rio Games hasn’t been this bad since 1988, when Roy Jones Jr. was infamously denied a gold medal based on an archaic scoring system.
“AIBA will never say they were corrupt, they will say they weren’t happy with their performance”, said a highly placed source.
The biggest culprit may have been the decision in the gold medal heavyweight fight between Russia’s Evgeny Tishchenko and Kazakhstan’s Vassily Levit.
Conlan’s accusations came in an expletive-filled tirade after he lost his quarter-final match to Vladimir Nikitin of Russian Federation.
After 239 Olympic bouts, the AIBA said “less than a handful” of the decisions were not at the level expected – although all previous results will stand.
“AIBA judges strike again”.
“If you have watched these Olympic Games and seen some of the decisions, Olympic boxing is dead”.
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AIBA have told Boxing News magazine that they review every bout to assess the performance of the referee and judges.
