C'wealth boxing champ accuses judges of cheating

It's an event that hardly ever makes headlines but the stunning defeat of Commonwealth champion and Asian silver medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg) has kicked up a storm at the All India Police Boxing Tournament as the judges have been accused of "cheating".

Jai, a Commonwealth and former national champion, representing Haryana Police, lost 1-2 to BSFs Pradeep Kumar on Thursday night in a shocking result.

Jai challenged the decision but the Indian Boxing Federation's jury upheld the verdict, insisting that after reviewing the video of the bout, they were convinced that the judges' decision was not wrong.

Jai, however, begged to differ and insisted that he was not given any score despite landing clear punches on his rival.

"I attacked all through and hit him clearly but the judges just didn't give me any score. What can I say, it is deeply distressing. How it is that a boxer who was just standing there with his guard up could outscore a guy in individual scores, who was attacking all through?" the dejected Haryana boxer said.

"When I checked the individual score, I had not been given a single point by two of the judges, how can it be?" he asked.

But the event's technical delegate B B Ram Mohan said the scoring was fair.

"Once he challenged the bout's decision, we saw the recording of the bout again and we found the judges didn't do anything wrong," he said.

However, Jai's fellow boxers who saw the bout felt he was undone by poor judging.

"What happened with Jai amounts to cheating and it's nothing new in a tournament like this. Judging is bad, some of them don't even know anything about boxing and sit here to decide our fate," said one of the participating boxers.

"A lot of Jai's punches were clear but he didn't get any score and his opponent was given points even though he was just standing there with a shell guard," added another.

IBF Director A S Dagar insisted that due procedure has been followed.

"The entire jury cannot be wrong. The decision has been reviewed and upheld. And upsets can happen in any sport," he said.