ONCE the judges awarded the first round of Michael Conlan’s Olympic quarterfinal with Vladimir Nikitin to his Russian opponent, the Belfast man’s hopes of medalling at a second successive Games were “gone”.
That’s the view of former Irish head coach Billy Walsh, who is now in charge of Team USA.
He was watching in the warm-up area at Riocentro Pavilion and thought Conlan dominated the first two rounds.
“It’s disgraceful,” said Walsh, “but once he lost that first round I said ‘this is gone’. Eighty per cent of guys who win the first round win the fight.
“I saw Michael Conlan’s first two rounds in the changing area and he completely outboxed this guy – he beat him, he outboxed him in the first round, he outfought him in the second, and then that happens. It’s a crying shame. “These guys are putting in years of effort, this is the pinnacle of our sport. We’re supposed have the best referees and judges here.”
It’s not just Ireland who have been on the wrong end of poor decisions at this year’s Olympic Games, with Walsh left seething as lightweight Mikaela Mayer bowed out just hours after Katie Taylor’s shock exit.
And on Tuesday, just over half an hour after Conlan had left the ring, US light-welter Gary Russell inexplicably dropped a split decision against Uzbekistan’s Fazliddin Gaibnazarov, despite appearing to dominate all three rounds.
Walsh described the judging as the worst he’s seen since the infamous Games of 1988 when Roy Jones jnr lost an unbelievable verdict to home favourite Park Si-Hun in Seoul.
Walsh competed at those Games, and fears boxing’s future as an Olympic sport is in jeopardy after a raft of contentious decisions at Rio 2016 He said: “The last time I saw it as bad was in Seoul in 1988, when Roy Jones got robbed in the final. They’ve changed the system from the computer system, so maybe we want to go back to the computers after this.
“That’s a joke, but a blind man could see it. We had a 60 kilo fight the same night as Katie, and she [Mayer] won the bloody fight. I’ve watched Katie’s fight again this morning – she won the fight.
“The whole game is about hitting the other person more than they hit you, right? It’s not about running forward.
“It’s about hitting and going, and she did that. The girl gave her a good fight, which she has done in the previous five times they’ve fought.
“It’s hard to believe. They set up the criteria, they change the rules, change the style of boxing, we’re trying to adhere to that. Be aggressive, throw more punches, be more accurate, be more stylish... you go and do all of that and you still lose the fight. It’s hard to fathom.”
Walsh has two more fighters still in the medal mix in the coming days, with bantamweight Shakur Stevenson meeting Nikitin today, and Olympic champion Claressa Shields guaranteeing at least a bronze yesterday.
And the Wexford man admits nobody is safe from poor judging in Rio, even Shields who is a huge gold medal favourite.
“Anybody can be beaten here, the judging has been atrocious,” he said “They need to have a good look at themselves.
“They want all of us to be honest, do everything right, make sure our kids don’t take drugs and our kids are in good shape – we’re doing everything we can to make the sport respectable. That’s the problem.
“I’d like to believe if everybody’s honest. I’ll be honest, if I win a fight, I’m happy, if we lose it I’m happy the other guy won it.
“I don’t want to win a fight we didn’t win. Everybody should have integrity and be honest.
“It’s a great game, all we’ve got to do is be honest.”
