What a miserable week for Irish boxing.
Away from the Michael O’Reilly fiasco, we’ve seen Paddy Barnes, David Oliver Joyce and now Joe Ward face defeat in the ring.
Ward, a heavy favourite over Ecuador’s Carlos Andres Mina, found himself against an aggressive, scrappy opponent for his Olympics debut that didn’t go anywhere near according to plan.
The 22-year-old got off to a solid start, claiming the first round on two judges’ scorecards but received a public warning in the second round and went into the third needing a big three minutes.
Despite Mina appearing to be just as guilty of holding, Ward received another deduction in the third and allowed himself to be drawn into the Ecuadorian’s wheelhouse.
A split decision was awarded to Mina and Ward was heartbroken after becoming the latest boxer to be eliminated from Rio 2016.
“I am very disappointed,” Ward told RTÉ after the bout.
A disappointed Joe Ward says his opponent made it hard to implement his game plan #RTErio2016 https://t.co/AorI4XbLVz
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 10, 2016
“I thought I boxed reasonably well. I thought I did enough to win the fight. The referee gave me two public warnings for no real reason.
“He (Mina) was doing a lot more holding and heading my head and elbowing but that’s the referee.”
And many, who had stayed up until midnight Irish time to watch the fight, were of the opinion that Ward had been hard done by by the referee.
That referee was a joke, Joe Ward hard done by, the Ecuadorian was worse for holding. #RioOlympics2016 #Boxing #TeamIreland
— Duibhír Mac Cathmhaoil (@dwyer_campbell) August 10, 2016
Jayus christ How the fuck can they let a spoiler of Fighter go thru.. Referee was an absolute Godshite!! #CorruptAsFuck #WardvsDangles
— Shane Stafford (@staffyshane) August 10, 2016
That referee in the boxing was a complete joke. How he warned Ward and did not warn the other fighter is ridiculous #Rio2016 #Boxing
— Ciaran Heneghan (@CiaranHeneghan) August 10, 2016
Ward was robbed.. Disaster of a referee #Rio2016
— Rob Kearns (@KearnsRk) August 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/SeamusMcDonagh1/status/763507675892215808
https://twitter.com/Green_Scouser/status/763507452784566272
Referee was fucking awful #boxing
— Brian Mclean (@mcleanbrian1) August 10, 2016
Daylight robbery for Joe Ward. Referee should be sent home for that #Rio2016
— Seán 🇺🇦 (@Toby__Don) August 10, 2016
Referee did for Ward there. He would have won without the warnings.
— Marcus (@auric_k) August 10, 2016
Some shockers in the #Olympics this year, another red hot fav in #JoeWard (1/9fav) turned over! To be fair, referee was poor in this bout!
— Pádraig Ó Maolchathaigh (@PaMulSport) August 10, 2016
