Irish boxing suffered yet another shocking disappointment as Michael Conlan was beaten in his bantamweight quarter-final on Tuesday afternoon.
Conlan reacted furiously as the referee lifted the arm of his opponent Vladimir Nikitin, removing his shirt and tossing it aside. Each of the three judges scored the fight 29-28 in favour of the Russian.
Speaking to RTÉ after the fight, Conlan tore into the powers-that-be within amateur boxing, calling them out as "cheating bastards". "They're fucking cheats," Conlan said in a furious but well-measured interview. "They're paying everybody. Amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top."
"I'm not a loser, I'm a winner - and today just shows how corrupt this organisation is."
Conlan doesn't believe that he's the only Irish fighter who has suffered because of corruption at the Olympics, telling RTÉ "Look at Katie yesterday, there's no way she lost that fight."
"It's a shambles to be honest. I'm gutted, from the bottom of my heart."
You can watch the stunning interview in full below:
https://twitter.com/RTEsport/status/765563540136747008
