Mick Conlan robbed at Olympics
I know this is strictly not Birmingham boxing but with a big Irish community I thought I would have to do a blog.
Mick Conlan has lashed out at amateur boxing’s governing body AIBA following his ‘loss’ this afternoon to Russian Vladimir Nikitin.
The Belfast bantamweight, the reigning AIBA World Champion, outclassed his opponent across the three rounds, the first two especially, but still was adjudged to have lost on all three cards and was thus wrongfully denied a guaranteed bronze medal.
Immediately afterwards a furious Conlan rightly hit out at the decision and told RTÉ that “AIBA are cheats, they’re fucking cheats.”
“I’ll never box for AIBA again, they’re cheating bastards they’re paying everybody.”
“I was here to win Olympic gold, my dreams been shattered now.”
“And these [AIBA]? They’re known for being cheats, and they’ll all be cheats.”
“Amateur boxing stinks, from the core right to the top.”
Conlan is now planning an assault on the pro game and promised that “y’know what? I’ve a big career ahead of me.”
Punch state for the fight - Conlan threw more than his Russian opponent throughout the fight, firing off 365 shots as opposed to Nikitin’s 257. Conlan landed 89 (24.4%) of these in comparison to Nikitin’s 75 (29.2%). Conlan also threw and landed the greater number of power shots throughout the bout, with 82 of 275 (29.8%) non-jabs landing compared to his opponent’s 71 of 231 (30.7%).Compubox somewhat supports the view that Nikitin won the opening round, with them tallying Nikitin as having landed 26 of 72 (36.1%) punches in comparison to Conlan’s 18 of 114 (15.8%). However it should probably be noted that Conlan fought mainly off the back foot in the opener, with the Conlan stylist throwing a lot (41) of jabs, with just 2 being counted by the aggregator. Indeed such is Olympic boxing, with larger gloves, jabs to the head are hard to count in the traditional sense as they are invariably caught somewhat, perhaps only slightly, by the glove. Conlan’s aggressive performance in the second is reflected in the numbers which have him landing 37 of 99 (37.4%)power shots, compared to Nikitin’s 26 of 88 (29.5%).The final round also seemed to favor the Irishman with Conlan landing 31 of 126 (24.6%) in contrast to the Russian’s 21 of 87 (24.1%).
Dexter's Thoughts
It's very sad to say but true, corruption is rife in amateur boxing and has been for years, it is one of the reasons I never got carded when I was a kid. We are talking over 30 years ago I witnessed a lot of my friends on the wrong end of a bad verdict due to favoritism or there face not fitting. I remember one of my pals Jon Bomber Martin taking on England's Number 1 at the time in the finals of a championship. Bomber boxed the head off his opponent but lost on points, I remember there was nearly a riot because of it.
It is never going to change it will always be there, but there are some great trainers and ABA coaches in Birmingham and I'm sure none of them are involved in this.
This may be one of the reasons why so many boxers are using the Unlicensed route to turn pro. Mick has had a great amateur career and should be proud of himself and so should Ireland he had every right to get upset and maybe something will be done about it now.
If I was Mick Conlan I would do what he has said turn pro and win as many titles as he can.
Mick Conlan's interview