Before Irish boxing suffered its own injustice on Tuesday afternoon, there was a disgraceful decision on Monday night, also involving a Russian fighter.
Kazakhstan fighter Vassily Levit dominated in the heavyweight final against Russian Evgeny Tishchenko. Like Conlan, Levit lost at the whim of the judges when everyone watching knew that the Kazakh should have been the one flying back home with gold.
On commentary for RTÉ, former Irish Olympian Darren O'Neill said that Tishchenko's face said it all - he knew the decision should not have gone his way.
Russian coach Eduard Kravtsov has pretty much admitted the same. In an interview with Kazakh website vesti.kz, Kravtsov said those with their eyes on the fight 'saw who won'.
What can I say, we all saw who won the fight. I am always for fair judging and I want the work of coaches and boxers to be assessed fairly... such situations in the boxing ring do not present out sport in a good light.
Unfortunately, this is not the only such fight in the Olympics, it has rather become a tendency. Our boxer came out to fight and wanted to win, and it is not his fault that his arm was raised. But, unfortunately for boxing fans, we got what we got.
Just today the AIBA released a statement announcing that judges and referees involved in a 'handful' of fights where decisions did not meet expected standards were being expelled from the Games. Those officials were not named but if those involved in the Conlan and Levit fiascos are not among them, it would further add to an already mountainous scandal.
Translation via BBC.
