Zaur Antia furious after Katie Taylor defeat

Ireland head coach Zaur Antia has lashed out at the judges following Katie Taylor’s shock Olympic quarter final defeat.

Taylor was beaten in her opening fight of her Olympic title defence by Finn Mira Potkonen in a split decision decided by a judges preference pick.

With Judge A and C being split 39-37 either way, Judge B scored the bout 38-38 before siding with Potkonen based on the entirety of the fight.

Speaking to RTÉ in the immediate aftermath, Antia was not happy and fumed that “She [Taylor] did not lose fight, that’s it.”

The Georgian technical wizard admitted that the bout was a close one, but felt that the Bray woman deserved the nod, and reasoned that “she can’t kill that girl she is a good boxer, a tough fighter.”

“Every fight will be very close, but you have to take what you deserve.”

“She won the fight, first round she won, second round was very close, could go both ways, Katie wasn’t great, but third and forth rounds she won the fight.”

“She had good skills, sidesteps, great punches. What else can she do?”

“Nobody can convince me that this fight Katie lost.”

“Then I would say I have no experience and I don’t know boxing.”

“When it is a close fight I say it is… this wasn’t close. The second round yes, was close.”

Indeed Antia seemed disheartened at the lack of credit Taylor got for her attacking performance, in line with the new scoring system, and described how “she [Taylor] was for three rounds chasing her, why didn’t she get those rounds?”

“They want domination they call, ‘domination!”

“Boxing is hit, don’t get hit, Katie hit more. Two times more than she got back. What more can she do?”

“You see her corner, they were not happy because they were not sure, they had no confidence. When they raise her hand you see how they jump.”

“What more do you need?”