If the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics resembled a battered boxer being patched up before the contest had even begun, the real fighting on day one of the fortnight at least provided this benighted city – and the fisticuffs – with excellent entertainment and even a little credibility.
The organisers of the slimmed down lights-and-frippery show at the Maracanã on Friday night described it as “gambiarra”, which translates roughly as a quick fix – apt candour in the circumstances. The last thing boxing needs, however, in an increasingly fetid atmosphere of corruption and mismanagement, is any suggestion of the other sort of convenient arrangement.
Birmingham’s light-fly Galal Yafai provided a welcome antidote to the many and varied perceived viruses when he came through a crude examination by the short-armed Cameroonian Simplice Fotsala in the first bout to take a unanimous decision over three close rounds.
Yafai, youngest of three fighting brothers and the last amateur, now has the dubious pleasure on Monday of trading with Cuba’s No1 seed, Johanys Argilagos. Well as he performed here, he will do well to get through that one – but then who can be sure in amateur boxing?
Yafai said: “Not underestimating my opponent, but [the win] was expected. It was a warm-up fight for the Cuban on Monday.
“It was a nice bit of history being the first British fighter to compete at the Games but for me it was just another fight. It was a good test. I have probably had easier fights against better people but I am glad to have got it out of the way. I wasn’t as nervous as in other fights I’ve had; I was probably less nervous. It is exciting.
“He came with a few little shots but I will be sharper for the Cuban on Monday. I want to medal and I want to beat the world champion on Monday and go on and win the tournament, so that is one win out of five. I don’t mind the draw. I know the Cuban is beatable. In my eyes I beat him in my last fight [in World Series of Boxing in June].”
Well-placed sources in the sport said recently they feared for the legitimacy of some decisions in the tournament but the first session on Saturday went by without major incident. The judging, generally, was fair, if not entirely consistent, and the results fell pretty much as the majority in the two-thirds-full, 10,000-seat pavilion appeared to see them.
This is the first Olympic tournament without headguards since Teófilo Stevenson banged out his farewell in the 1980 Games. The last super-heavyweight Olympic champion wearing the protection was Anthony Joshua, in London four years ago. The international governing body, Aiba, decided the following year to move boxers closer to the professional code by ruling that they should compete without headguards.
It is a welcome change, long overdue. There was an issue with inexperienced amateur cornermen handling cuts around their boxers’ faces, but most seemed to have become more proficient in what was, for a long time, the domain of cuts men in the professional ranks.
Yafai, sharp but nervous, survived unscathed. He edged the first round and was more expansive in the second, although his defence leaked a few crisp counters. He knocked his opponent’s gumshield out at one minute 38 seconds of the third round and the Cameroonian tempered his charges with caution, to give Yafai precious room to do his work.
The protective guard fell from Fotsala’s tiring mouth again with 54 seconds left, and Yafai rounded out the win with a southpaw right smashing impressively into his forehead at the bell.
Yafai took the first round, 10-9, on three cards, had two scores of 10-9 in the second and a clean sweep in the third. There was not much to argue about in that.
Amateur boxing – a misguided description of a sport that has rushed with what some regard as indecent haste towards professionalism under the stewardship of Aiba’s leader, Dr Wu – is in a curious place.
The World Series of Boxing team event has plainly improved standards – in the ring and around it – as the officials have been encouraged to gain experience in different environments. Boxers’ fitness, preparation and skill levels are, overall, better – and Wu is determined to increase competitiveness by allowing three professionals into this tournament.
After three genuinely amateur bouts the sport celebrated, if that is the right word, the appearance of the tournament’s first accredited professional, the unbeaten Italian lightweight Carmine Tommasone, who walked away from the amateur game when he failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.
His test on Saturday was provided by Lindolfo Delgado, but the judges did not regard the Mexican’s effort as worthy of a win. Eyebrows flipped upwards when they gave the second round to Tommasone, Delgado going against national stereotype with some artful dancing, embroidered with flicked jabs and finishing uppercut, none of which apparently impressed the officials.
Among them was Britain’s Mik Basi, alongside a Canadian, Sri Lankan, Chinese, Kazakh and Uzbek. If there was any sort of conspiracy, however, that lineup presented an unfathomable collection of possibilities, none of those countries being particularly hostile or friendly towards each other, in boxing terms at least.
To be fair to Aiba, it has put in place as many failsafes as possible. Judges are announced only 10 minutes before a bout to avoid collusion, and a computer picks three of the five judges at random to determine the result. In that cull Basi missed out; the verdict was delivered by China, Kazakhstan (both 30-27) and Uzbekistan (29-28).
If it is accepted that each of them judged the bout fairly, there is no great disparity there. What is harder to eradicate is idiocy. Here and there some judges just did not get what they were looking at. No computer can fix that.
