|
Conlan's quarter-final defeat in Rio triggered an outcry at the
time, with the bantamweight blasting boxing's world body AIBA as
'corrupt', 'rotten to the core' and saying officials had robbed
him of his dream.
The report, led by Richard McLaren and commissioned by AIBA,
suggested at least nine bouts were suspicious while two bouts
caused the system to "publicly collapse".
One of those two was Conlan's against Russia's Vladimir Nikitin,
who was so badly injured despite being declared the winner that
he was unable to fight in the semi-final but still collected a
bronze medal.
"I'm going to be honest, the news today was a shock... I thought
it was all put to bed, it was finished and nothing was going to
happen, but here we are five years later and probably coming to
a final close, which is great," Conlan told Reuters.
"I'm delighted and I hope that justice will be served. It shows
that my reactions and my actions during the time were just and
now hopefully I'll have a bit of vindication by the end of
this." Conlan, a 2012 bronze medallist, was the reigning world
and European Champion in 2016, and he said the controversial
split decision that gave Nikitin victory broke him completely.
"My goal as a boxer when I started boxing was to become Olympic
Champion -- I will never, ever become a champion because of what
happened," he said. "I'm probably never going to get that back
and it is something I will have to probably live with for the
rest my life.
"To be a double Olympic medallist, which I should have been,
even though I believe it should have been champion... I think
for the decision to be overturned would be fantastic."
'I WANT MY MEDAL'
Conlan, who turned professional after the Olympics, hoped
decisions could be overturned and a medal awarded. "I want my
medal, that is when I feel that justice will be done, when they
send me that medal in the post. I'll even go to Switzerland if
they will hand me it there," he said.
"And also if they can take away the 10,000 Swiss Francs
($10,704) they charged me with because of my reaction at the
Games, I'll be happy too. And then a wee apology wouldn't go
amiss."
However, he said that the injustice of Rio had probably
benefited his career more than winning gold and his earnings had
not been affected. Conlan added that the fighters who benefited
from the corruption should not be penalised.
"It wasn't their fault, they weren't the guys controlling what
was going on, they weren't the guys making decisions," he said.
"They were just going in there believing they were fighting
honestly and winning honestly, but there was much going on
behind the scenes."
Another Rio fight called into question was the super-heavyweight
final between Britain's Joe Joyce and France's Tony Yoka, with
the latter taking gold. Both are unbeaten as professionals.
($1 = 0.9342 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Iain Axon, additional reporting by Alan Baldwin,
Writing by Rohith Nair; editing by Toby Davis)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
|
