Kenny Egan says he is worried for the future of Irish amateur boxing and fears the controversial judging results at the Rio Games could have a long-term impact on the sport in this country.
On a disappointing performance from Team Ireland’s boxers in Brazil, the defeat of Michael Conlan by Russian bantamweight Vladimir Nikitin was a major talking point.
The three scoring judges gave the fight in favour of Nikitin and he advanced to the semi-final of the 56kg weight division, despite appearing to be second-best for the majority of the contest.
The Russian subsequently was unable to take his place in the last four from injuries suffered in the bout.
It wasn’t the only contentious decision – in the heavyweight final Russian Evgency Tishchenko was adjudged to have beaten Vassiliy Levit from Kazakhstan in the gold medal fight when most observers in the arena were convinced that Levit had won comfortably - and subsequently six judges were sent home from the Rio Games.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Sunday Sport programme, Egan believes it marks a new era in boxing.
“What happened Michael Conlan at the Olympic Games shone a light on corruption,” he said.
“It wasn’t just, ‘Ah he lost the fight, that’s the end of it'. People could see it with their own two eyes that he was robbed. It wasn’t fair.
“To go out there and have them five judges premeditated and knew what the result was before they even got into the ring is disgusting.
“He showed the Olympics for what they were.”
Conlan quit the amateur ranks in disgust, while Katie Taylor and Paddy Barnes turned professional after the Games.
“Anybody can go professional and that’s the problem"
While Conlan was a real possibility to turn pro regardless of what happened in Rio, the 2008 silver medallist from Beijing fears that young boxers will be turned off the amateur game after the scoring debacle.
“Young lads looking at these Games and have dreams of becoming Olympians, it probably makes them second guess and go, ‘I’d rather go pro’.
“Anybody can go professional and that’s the problem. There are a lot of journey men out there getting used left, right and centre, thrown into the ring for six or eight rounds, getting their pay day.
“There’s journeymen out there making a wage because they are in the ring so much, but it’s not healthy.
“If I was to give any advice to young lads coming up, it would be to stay in the amateur game for as long as possible because the pro sport is not a game, it’s a business.”
The problem he envisages is that young boxers will lack the know-how to deal with professional boxing, something that isn’t a problem for Conlan, Barnes or Taylor.
“They [Olympic trio] have fantastic experience in the ring, they know what they are doing when they get into the boxing ring as a pro.
“Whereas young pros, who are turning pro at 17, 18, 19, thinking they are going to make it, they haven’t learned their trade.
“It’s a scary place to be.”
Read, watch and listen to the sporting highlights of the last 12 months in '2016 A Year in Sport'
