You didn’t need to be a boxing expert to realise there was something wrong with Michael Conlan’s exit from the Olympics.
The Belfast boxer crashed out of the Rio Games in highly controversial circumstances. Despite being out-fought, out-thought and out-boxed by his Irish opponent, Vladimir Nikitin was awarded a unanimous decision by the judges.
The decision in favour of the Russian understandably infuriated Conlan, and left the panel of boxing experts on Irish broadcaster RTE dumbfounded.
“What are they (the judges) looking at in this championship?” Michael Carruth asked.
“I thought Katie’s [Taylor] was bad yesterday, but this just takes the biscuit.”
The 1992 Olympic gold medallist despaired for amateur boxing as a sport if such a decision can stand.
“What do I teach my kids from this?”
Bernard Dunne called for the suspension of the judges.
“That referee and all judges in that fight should be suspended,” Dunne said.
“He [Conlan] has done his country proud, he’s done himself proud and he’s been let down by the amateur organisation. He’s been let down by World Boxing.
“I said just before we went to the fight that the judging of the first round would tell us what Michael needed to do. The judging of that first round was just ridiculous.”
'Amateur boxing stinks' – The RTÉ panel discusses Michael Conlan's controversial defeat https://t.co/miT6HjqUYn
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 16, 2016
“AIBA needs to look at itself because that just turns people off boxing. It turns me off boxing and I love the sport.”
“It’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. He gave a boxing lesson [in the first round]. He moved, he controlled the ring, he didn’t allow himself to get caught on the ropes. It’s just ridiculous.”
“I feel for the kid, I absolutely do. It’s a horrible thing to have happen to you and it will sour the taste of amateur sport for him for the rest of his life.”
