Barnes could sue the IABA suggests Peter Taylor

Paddy Barnes has cause to sue the IABA according to Peter Taylor.

The father of Katie Taylor, who worked with the High Performance Team in London 2012, labeled Ireland’s Rio Olympic’s a ‘shambles’ and questioned why Barnes was allowed to push to make 49kgs for the Games.

Taylor claims the organisation failed in its duty of care towards the two time Olympic medal winner as he dropped nine kilos to make the 49 kilo weight ahead of his shock first-round defeat.

The former coach of Irish boxing legend Katie Taylor indicates health should come before winning, and doesn’t think that was the case ahead of the Belfast man’s shock Rio reverse.

Taylor told Vincent Hogan of the Irish Independent that “in my view, Paddy almost has a case to sue the Association.”

“He’s an employee of theirs, it’s their responsibility to protect him. It’s not just about winning medals, it’s about a boxer’s health. That should be the first consideration every time.”

Barnes qualified at 49kgs and certainly wasn’t going to relinquish his Olympic place. There is no doubt the respected fighter was always going to do all he could to make weight, but Taylor claims the Barnes should never have been allowed to reach 58kgs and then cut.

“With all the structures around him, all the doctors and sports scientists, Paddy went up to 58 kilos. At that, his body fat must have been 9-10%.”

“Why didn’t somebody say to him, ‘Paddy when you’re 49 kilos, your body fat should be only 2-3%? You might make the weight, but you can’t perform at that!’”

Indeed Taylor believes long-term weight-making may effect Barnes’s future health, noting that “when Paddy retires, he has a big chance of facing osteoporosis and other issues from trying to make an unnatural weight.”

“A decision about his weight should have been made after London. He’s getting older, the weight is getting harder to make. You’ve just got to make these decisions, even if the boxer himself objects to it.”

“At the end of the day, what is your priority? Medals or the boxer’s wellbeing?

“How can you lose nearly a sixth of your body weight and expect to function properly? You can’t do it. It’s insane.”

Regardless of being drained in Rio, Taylor feels Barnes could still have won his last 16 bout if given better tactics.

“Paddy is a warrior who, in my view, put his life on the line for Ireland in Rio. Even at 49 kilos, when he was wrecked, he still threw more punches than his opponent.”

“If he’d been given the right tactics, he’d have won that fight by controlling the distance and the tempo.

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish