It wasn’t just the Irish fans who were shocked when the judges’ decision was delivered at the end of Tuesday’s AIBA World Championships light-welterweight quarter-final between Amy Broadhurst and India’s Simranjit Baath Kaur.
The commentators too were left gobsmacked when Broadhurst missed out on a bronze medal in controversial circumstances after outboxing her opponent for large stages of their fight.
Dundalk’s Broadhurst started the better and should have taken the first frame with little doubt and while she encountered some resistance from Kaur in the second, it could be argued that the Irish fighter enjoyed the better of the exchanges in that round too.
Kaur was down in the third round but it was deemed a slip, although it looked like contact had been made, and what appeared to be a solid left hook resulted in a point deduction for Broadhurst as the referee claimed she was not hitting with her fist.
Even with the docked point, most felt that Broadhurst had done more than enough to warrant the judges’ nod but the Dealgan Club boxer was left in tears when the decision was read by the ring announcer.
Kaur was declared the split decision winner by a scoreline of 27-29, 28-28, 29-27, 30-26, 29-27.
The fact that one judge, from Algeria, saw the fight as one-sided as 30-26 is nothing short of disgraceful and Irish amateur boxing fans will be all too familiar with this feeling of disappointment.
You can watch Broadhurst’s contentious defeat from the 1 hour 21 minute mark of the below video.
