Olympic boxing

[Gold]

Kenny Egan reckoning that Nikitin was destined to get a medal at the outset with brown envelopes handed over.

Apparently he was absolutely blessed to win his first fight against a Thai boxer. Got another gift today.

He was I watched it.  Thai fighter was very good and all agreed the decision was strange but that Conlon would rather fight the RussIan as he was nowhere near as tecynically good a fighter as the Thai,  albeit though the Russian was a brawler

That today was a disgrace,  4 years wasted. People who didn't see it will think it was sour grapes, it isn't.  Conlon was magnificent..real boxing masterclass.  He won, simple as that. 

Afterwards he could've been pulled aside, he was obviously raging and acted as Paddy Barnes did 8 years ago, live on TV.  Wouldn't go unnoticed by RTE etc when they're picking pundits in years to come

Absolute and utterly robbery. I'm sickened by this Olympics.  Feel for him

[moysider]

Kenny Egan reckoning that Nikitin was destined to get a medal at the outset with brown envelopes handed over.

Apparently he was absolutely blessed to win his first fight against a Thai boxer. Got another gift today.

He was I watched it.  Thai fighter was very good and all agreed the decision was strange but that Conlon would rather fight the RussIan as he was nowhere near as tecynically good a fighter as the Thai,  albeit though the Russian was a brawler

That today was a disgrace,  4 years wasted. People who didn't see it will think it was sour grapes, it isn't.  Conlon was magnificent..real boxing masterclass.  He won, simple as that. 

Afterwards he could've been pulled aside, he was obviously raging and acted as Paddy Barnes did 8 years ago, live on TV.  Wouldn't go unnoticed by RTE etc when they're picking pundits in years to come

Absolute and utterly robbery. I'm sickened by this Olympics.  Feel for him

I thought at the time that he should have been given more time before a mic was shoved in his face. That girl was just doing her job. Anyway it resulted in one of those tv moments that will never be forgotten!

[seafoid]

It wouldn't matter if everyone got pbs. It will be medals that will judge it. The English are having some laugh at our silver medals.

Bollix. Any competitor that goes out and gets an SB or PB is doing well, if you're performing at the top of your abilities,tthat's as good as you can do.

Dunno what the English have to do with it tbh

The athletes themselves will be happy of course but the general public will always judge it on how medals. I couldn't tell you who has PBs or SBs from this olympics but I can tell you who has won olympic medals. This olympics has been a disaster. We are a small nation and of course we are not going to be leading the medal table but we should be doing better.

Doing better in what disciplines exactly though?
Break it down and there are good reasons we don t do better I'm sure.

Boxing is the obvious one but corruption seems to have ruined that one. Why do we not do better at sports like rowing or track cycling? Are there other sports that we have potential in but athletes not getting the opportunities to improve? No money put into it, an attitude of 'sure we are only a small country', only there for the craic etc no doubt all reasons. New Zealand has a smaller population than Ireland and they have 3 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze. As I said we are a small country and no one is expecting us to be in the top 10 but we are currently 55th in the medal table with 2 silver. Pathetic.

Apart from boxing and golf most of the Olympic disciplines are classed as "other sports" by RTE and the newspapers.  Elite sportspeople in Ireland usually end up playing GAA,  soccer or rugby. There aren't that many world class coaches in other sports. Yer man in Skibb rowing club is a rare bird.
If Ireland had one gold it would be 10 notches higher on the.list. 2 medals is a bit below what you might expect but Belgium with 10m people has 5 medals as does Switzerland.

[imtommygunn]

It wouldn't matter if everyone got pbs. It will be medals that will judge it. The English are having some laugh at our silver medals.

Bollix. Any competitor that goes out and gets an SB or PB is doing well, if you're performing at the top of your abilities,tthat's as good as you can do.

Dunno what the English have to do with it tbh

The athletes themselves will be happy of course but the general public will always judge it on how medals. I couldn't tell you who has PBs or SBs from this olympics but I can tell you who has won olympic medals. This olympics has been a disaster. We are a small nation and of course we are not going to be leading the medal table but we should be doing better.

Doing better in what disciplines exactly though?
Break it down and there are good reasons we don t do better I'm sure.

Boxing is the obvious one but corruption seems to have ruined that one. Why do we not do better at sports like rowing or track cycling? Are there other sports that we have potential in but athletes not getting the opportunities to improve? No money put into it, an attitude of 'sure we are only a small country', only there for the craic etc no doubt all reasons. New Zealand has a smaller population than Ireland and they have 3 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze. As I said we are a small country and no one is expecting us to be in the top 10 but we are currently 55th in the medal table with 2 silver. Pathetic.

Track cycling? does Ireland even have a velodrome?

The horsey stuff is an area where we could be doing better maybe but we used to sell off our best horses. Maybe we still do. wouldn t surprise me if some Irish bred horses 'won' medals for other countries last few olympics.

Victor Costello and Gary Halpin still hold Irish schools records in Shot and Hammer. Costello competed in 92 olympics. Field competitions may be an area we could target but lads that are decent in that area would also, more than likely, be involved in a team sport like rugby. Like Costello and Halpin concentrated o the rugby. God knows what they might have done if they were highly coached in the throwing.

The track will always be about making finals and pbs.

There are very few people who take part in the throw events here. If you just turned up at the Irish championships you would have a chance of a medal in some of them. Seriously. I have heard of this happen.

[nrico2006]

I'm glad Conlon reacted like he did, will hopefully highlight the problem more than if he had just taken it on the chin (and why should he have).  As for the judges being corrupt, thats another question.  There are lots of terrible decisions in boxing (and other sports) at both amateur and professional level that leave you scratching your head, but a lot of the time they are the result of poor officials and not necessarily a part of some conspiracy.

Too many people base the result of a fight as being good/bad on the figures produced by compubox too.  They don't tell the whole story.  The quality of the punches is missed in these stats as well as the distinction between a wee jab and a crushing hook.

As for the 2012 lightweight womens final, I remember thinking that the Russian could have got that decision, I was very nervours too when the result was being called out.

[Applesisapples]

Winker just managed two barely concede the gloating when talking about Team Irelands boxing results on Radio Uladh last night.

[Declan]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/16/gary-antuanne-russell-boxing-fixing-allegations-rio-olympics?CMP=share_btn_tw

Not just the Irish getting screwed

[Milltown Row2]

Conlon giving O'Reilly some stick too

[The Gs Man]

Fearon will be here any minute to say the Russian deserved it and we should just accept the decision and move on.   

[Milltown Row2]

Fearon will be here any minute to say the Russian deserved it and we should just accept the decision and move on.   

Their coach was on superior wages so had to perform better

[LeoMc]

Winker just managed two barely concede the gloating when talking about Team Irelands boxing results on Radio Uladh last night.

Same on the news. Talked about it ending badly for Tema Ireland adn mainly showed clips of the Russian getting punches in. MAde it sound like sour grapaes.

[tonto1888]

Has there been any international reaction to the fight, or are we viewing it through green glasses?

Sergio Martinez tweeted the result was a joke

[Franko]

Joe Calzaghe just got in the act.  The White House are yet to release an official comment though.

[Franko]

Winker just managed two barely concede the gloating when talking about Team Irelands boxing results on Radio Uladh last night.

Same on the news. Talked about it ending badly for Tema Ireland adn mainly showed clips of the Russian getting punches in. MAde it sound like sour grapaes.

Saw this.  Didn't comment as I wasn't sure I was looking at through my firmly planted "I hate that Watson cnut" glasses.  Glad someone else thought the same.  Poor form from him but pig and grunt I suppose.

[Franko]

http://www.balls.ie/boxing/michael-conlan-international-reaction/343089

So now we have the New York Times, Ring Magazine and Al Bernstein commenting on it.  Would this now constitute an "international reaction" MR2?  Or is it still just the silly aul Irish lads having a moan?