Leading boxing statisticians CompuBox have crunched the numbers from Michael Conlan's outrageous defeat to Russia's Vladimir Nikitin on Tuesday evening, and in doing so have confirmed what we already knew, that Conlan won the fight.
After initially reporting that Conlan had outpunched his opponent 71-49 in the last two rounds...
@TrisDixon and rightfully so. Conlan had a 71-49 edge in landed punches over last 2 rounds #boxing
— CompuBox (@CompuBox) August 16, 2016
They then released their full report, which had Mick Conlan throwing and landing more punches overall, although their fight report tried to remain as careful as possible.
@CompuBox stats:Conlan outlanded Nikitin 71-49 in rnds 2 & 3. Conlan avg'd 122 thrown per rnd. #OlympicBoxing pic.twitter.com/Q4AXH73eFM
— CompuBox (@CompuBox) August 16, 2016
In one of the bloodiest and brutally paced fights of the Olympic tournament eight seeded Nikitin survived a cut over the left eye and on the ear as well as gashes on the side and back of the head (the latter coming from a previous bout) and upset Conlan, the number-one seed.
Nikitin swept the first with his aggression while Conlan swept the second with his activity and accuracy. The core of the dispute rested in the third, which the judges from Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Poland gave to Nikitin despite Conlan prevailing 31-21 overall and 29-20 power while also throwing 126 punches to Nikitin's 87. Perhaps it was Nikitin's ability to draw Conlan into his preferred brawling style that may have tipped the scale, but numerically speaking the Irishman should have prevailed.
While Conlan was not drawn into anything, rather changed his style because he knew he had to do something drastic due to the wild scoring of round one - something Conlan himself has confirmed in an interview to the BBC - it is STILL clear that he should have won the fight.
Not that we had any doubt, we now simply have the numbers to support the outrage at the decision.
