Paddy Barnes will decide in the near future whether or not to join the professional ranks in the wake of his shock defeat at Rio 2016 on Monday.
Barnes fell at the very first hurdle as Spain’s Samuel Carmona Hereida capitalised on a listless display from the Belfast boxer in their light-flyweight bout.
Two of the three judges awarded the bout to the unheralded Spaniard as the rigours of cutting a considerable amount of weight took a heavy toll on the two-time Olympic bronze medallist.
Looking ahead to a possible transition to the pro game after the Games, Barnes told listeners of The Ray D’Arcy show on RTÉ Radio 1: “I’m not going to rule it out of the equation.
“I’ve been talking to a few people already.
“I’ll see how it goes from now on in and I’ll make a decision in September.”
Despite his own hopes of Olympic glory now having been dashed, the 29-year-old insisted that he would not ruminate on the defeat, saying: “I’m still devastated. You just have to get on with life.
“I’m more focused now on the team doing well today.”
“Maybe I haven’t been on Twitter enough in these Games”
Cutting weight is part of life for boxers, but Barnes revealed a particularly onerous weigh-in and fight schedule may have contributed to his defeat.
“This is the first time ever I’ve weighed in in the morning and fought a few hours later,” he revealed.
“Usually, I weigh in in the morning and have the whole day to recover and fight that night.
“I think that played a part too in my energy levels.
“I weighed in at eight o’clock and I fought at half eleven.
“It’s a very, very small window to hydrate yourself and build yourself up.”
The Holy Family fighter insisted that he was high on confidence in the run-up to the fight and that the possibility of a disastrous result only became apparent when the bout got under way.
“I was still expecting to do well and before the fight I actually felt great, but just getting in there and actually fighting, the energy just left me,” he said.
Barnes was strangely resigned to his fate when he took to his stool at the end of the first round.
“I heard the coach, Eddie Bolger, say that he got the scores and that I was down. I just knew that it wasn’t going to be my day,” he said.
“Coming into the second and third rounds, I threw loads and loads of punches, and I don’t even know where it came from - I think it was just instinct.”
“I’m just dreaming of a big dirty Chinese when I get home”
Barnes is nobly hoping that he can use his defeat to spur on other less-fancied members of the Irish team: “I sat down with the lads last night when we had a meeting and I told them ‘listen, a few of the boys are fighting big names, but look at me, I was a big name and I lost the first fight’.
“This is sport. It’s the Olympic Games.
“Anything can happen. Anyone can beat anyone."
Barnes is a frequent poster on social media and some have speculated that his Twitter activity may have been an unnecessary distraction, but Barnes rubbished those theories and made the tongue-in-cheek suggested that he hadn’t tweeted enough.
“It’s ridiculous,” was the boxer’s withering assessment.
“You can’t be stuck looking at the wall 24/7.
“I’m on Twitter on my down time.
“In London I was actually more on Twitter and I won a bronze medal.
“Maybe I haven’t been on Twitter enough in these Games!”
Reflecting of the more enjoyable aspects of his Olympic experience to date, Barnes admitted to something of a selfie addiction, saying: “The athletes keep themselves to themselves. Sometimes they don’t want to be annoyed. But I can’t help but annoy them.”
The sense of humour remains irrepressible, with Barnes admitting that his appetite - after a period on something approaching starvation rations - may only be satisfied when he gets back to Belfast.
“The food over here is absolutely disgusting,” he said. “I’m just dreaming of a big dirty Chinese when I get home.”
