barriga bows to zhakypov, ends olympic stint [or does he?]

Barriga (in red) lands one right on Zhakypov’s face during their fight on Saturday, Aug 4 (8.45pm in Manila.) This image from London2012.com.

Round 2 was decidedly big for Filipino boxer Mark Anthony Barriga — after being down by a point in Round 1 (4-5), he bounced back with a commanding 6-3 lead which had us beaming with hope.

And then things started getting ugly in Round 3.

We watched in disgust as Kazakhstan boxer Zhakypov threw Barriga to the mat at least thrice in three minutes — I don’t know, I had eyes so I saw. I hope you guys did too? What was up with that? In the same round, Barriga was slapped with two warnings, while Zhakypov had one. In the end, deductions taken into consideration, referee Roland Labbe (CAN) ended up raising Zhakypov’s hand.

Final score: 17-16. With deductions on Barriga, of course.

It’s infuriating. I would have readily given the win to Zhakypov, had he deserved it; I’ve watched other Olympic events, and I’ve watched our players lose, but this one — THIS ONE — didn’t feel right at all.

Updates on Twitter from London suggest that we have lodged a protest in connection with the decision. And we are certainly not the first country to have done so this year: Japanese boxer Satoshi Shimizu won on appeal after the referee ruled in favor of Shimizu’s opponent from Azerbaijan — one Shimizu had knocked out SIX TIMES in the third round. WOW WHAT THE FUCK?

Looks like we’re not yet finished here, Olympic boxing. 11:30 PM EDIT: The protest has since been rejected. See you next Olympics, guys.