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16th Aug 2016

WATCH: Paddy Barnes’ father claims Russians knew the result BEFORE Michael Conlan’s defeat

Conor Heneghan

“We knew coming here this morning, the Russians told us that Michael wasn’t going to get the contest. They told us that themselves. And we knew.”

Patrick Barnes, father of Paddy Barnes, has made explosive claims that the Russian camp knew that Michael Conlan was going to lose to Vladimir Nitkin in the men’s bantamweight quarter-finals in Rio de Janeiro BEFORE the fight took place.

Speaking to JOE’s Joe Harrington in Rio de Janeiro after the fight, Patrick Barnes said: “We knew coming here this morning, the Russians told us that Michael wasn’t going to get the contest. They told us that themselves. And we knew.”

Barnes also expressed his dismay at the treatment of Conlan’s fellow Irish boxers at the Olympics, before labelling Conlan’s defeat as “the ultimate robbery”.

Conlan himself was outraged in an incredibly honest interview with RTÉ after the fight, while there was also a massive reaction on Twitter and in the RTÉ studio to a hugely controversial defeat.