This shows how dominant he was in the first round.
Michael Conlan exited the Rio Olympics in highly controversial circumstances on Tuesday afternoon.
The Belfast boxer appeared to get the better of his rather limited Russian opponent in his 56 kg quarter-final bout, but the judges awarded the fight to Vladimir Nikitin.
Conlan was, in most people’s eyes, robbed of his second Olympic medal and a chance to fight for gold at the Games. The 24-year-old swore never to fight amateur again and was understandably furious following his fight.
As was his older brother Jamie, his close friend Paddy Barnes and most of Twitter.
Conlan was adjudged to have won the second round of the bout, but the judges scored the first and the final rounds in favour of Nikitin.
The decision not to award Conlan the first round, in particular, was dumbfounding.
The Russian tried to drag his opponent into a scrap in the opening round, but Conlan managed to land a series of combinations, and remained light on his feet, working his jab.
The judges’ scorecard.Conlan comfortably achieved the primary aim of boxing – to hit your opponent and not get hit – but the three judges scored the round in favour of Nikitin.
The Irish boxer’s dominance in the first round is further emphasised by the advice of his corner at the end of the round.
“When I went back to the corner after the first round I wasn’t even breathing heavy,” the 24-year-old said following the fight.
“My corner said ‘you’ve done fantastic. You’ll win this easy’.”
Conlan was asked if he ever considered whether he would be on the end of a poor judges’ decision, as Katie Taylor appeared to be in her loss on Monday.
“No, not at all. But after what happened to Katie, I thought, ‘That can’t happen to me, with the whole of Ireland watching.’ In fact it did.”
The Belfast fighter also said that even his opponent appeared shocked at the decision.
“And the Russian afterwards, he didn’t believe he won. I didn’t believe he won. The referee didn’t believe he won. I couldn’t think his corner believed he won. Then he reacted as if he’d won a gold medal.
“I was here for gold. It didn’t happen. I’ll never box in this competition again. If people watch this Olympic Games and they see some of the decisions… I think boxing is dead. It’s about whoever pays the most money. Whoever has the biggest [influence] wins.”
"All judges involved in that fight should be suspended" https://t.co/XkfN7oUigu
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 16, 2016
Conlan did admit that the final round was close, but he felt he had comfortably won the two previous rounds.
“I won the first round. Was ready to go, was hurting him and actually I drew back, because I thought I had the round won. I just had to win one more, and I thought I had it in the second round. The third round was close, I’ll give him that. But even that, it still wasn’t enough for him to win.”
He also said he: “wouldn’t box in an AIBA competition again, even if they offered me five million dollars.”
