The Rio Olympic boxing scandal is all anyone can talk about in boxing at the moment following disgraceful decisions in recent days that saw fighters from Kazakhstan, Ireland and the USA all lose out because of shocking judging.
Kazakhstan’s Vasily Levit was clearly robbed yesterday in the heavyweight final which sparked wide spread outrage and today, the controversy has continued on.
Ireland’s bantamweight Michael Conlan easily won all three rounds over his Russian counterpart today, only to have his Olympic dreams shattered by a terrible judging decision.
Conlan rightly didn’t hold back in the post-fight interview and gave the interviewer a piece of his mind.
The widespread disgust online was perhaps even more palpable than yesterday’s justified outrage following the Olympic heavyweight final, but incredibly, more was still to come.
One of USA’s leading medal hopes in 20 year old Gary Russell was next to have his dreams derailed through controversial judging.
He lost out an Uzbekistan fighter and this succinct tweet from Jake Donovan was on point in my view:
Winner by bull**** decision #UZB Fazliddin Gaibnazarov advances to medal round. #Rio2016#boxing
— Jake Donovan (@JakeNDaBox_v2) August 16, 2016
Historically speaking, disgraceful judging in Olympic boxing is nothing new, unfortunately, but it’s disturbing regularity at this year’s games is very concerning indeed.
Particularly so as we now live in a technologically advanced time, where every single second of action is on view to literally the entire world via social media.
Fingers crossed we won’t see anymore of this before this year’s Olympics is out – but don’t hold your breath.
(Top image source and credit: Balls.ie)
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