Mick Conlan thought “this is so easy” during Round One

So on top was Michael Conlan during the opening round of his Olympic quarter final ‘loss,’ he wasn’t even out of breath.

The Belfast bantamweight, the reigning AIBA World champion, was farcical adjudged to have lost against Vladimir Nikitin this afternoon in Rio despite dominating throughout the majority of the nine minutes.

A boxing masterclass in the opening round was ignored by the scoring judges at ringside, and while he leveled the scores in the second with a destructive performance, the judges again went against the Irishman in a somewhat closer final round.

Speaking afterwards to the BBC, a distraught Conlan recalled his reaction after the opening round, describing how “I got information [that he had lost the round] after I sat down.”

“In the first round I was like ‘this is so easy,’ I was so comfortable. I wasn’t even out of breath, I was like ‘I’m winning this easy.'”

“Then I was told I was down and I had to go to war, which I did, I outfought him at his own game and I pulled back that round.”

“Then I thought in the last round I outfought him too.”

“But, y’know, it is what it is, Ive been robbed of my Olympic dream, but I’ve been robbed by a bunch of cheaters so it doesn’t matter to me.”