Coach Musa: Nick Okoth was robbed, judges killing the sport

In Tokyo

The dream of an Olympic medal up in smoke, Kenya’s boxing captain Nick “Commander” Okoth now wants to blow his opponents to smithereens at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham before he can hung up his gloves.

Everyone in the blue corner thought Okoth had nicked it against Tsenedbaatar Erdenebat in their featherweight contest at Tokyo’s Kokugikan Arena, but a controversial split point decision awarded the Mongolian fighter the advantage.

And it left Kenyan coach Benjamin Musa livid, launching an attack on the boxing Task Force for “entertaining mediocrity.”

Musa believes global boxing is in a deep rut with the caretaker team running the game contributing to its free-fall.

Persistent disputes over poor judging at the Rio 2016 Olympics followed by a cocktail of inept handling of governance, financial and ethical issues saw the International Boxing Federation (AIBA) suspended in 2019 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and a Task Force put in place to handle the Tokyo Olympic Games.

New measures to enhance transparency were introduced by the Task Force headed by Japan’s Morinari Watanabe, including publicly displaying each judge’s score after every round and independent selection of judges.

But Musa feels none of these mitigating factors have been adopted, pointing a particular accusing finger at Moroccan official Bachir Abbar for raining on Okoth’s parade.

Abbar (30-27), alongside Azerbaijan’s Anar Babanli (29-28) and Thailand’s Karn Tha Naklam (29-28), awarded the fight to the Mongolian in the red corner with Ireland’s Diarmuid MacDiarmada (30-27) and Argentina’s Manue Vilarino (29-28) giving it to Okoth.

“Elimination is good when it comes from the opponent. But when it comes from poor officiating, we feel a bit dejected, and it’s not going to help our sport,” coach Musa put it bluntly.

“The boxing Task Force never took time to get these judges together and agree on the criteria that they are going to use in the scoring system.

“When you look at the bout, Nick dominated, that’s one of the criteria, he threw the most quality punches, that’s another criteria, and he showed competitiveness so I fail to understand what happened that made him lose that fight because all the three scoring criteria were right there... It’s a bit surprising that the result didn’t go our way.”

Is there a mechanism for appeal?

Unfortunately not, Musa added, saying he could have landed in the soup should he have voiced his concerns to the officials, something he says is killing the sport.

“That is the problem I was talking about,” he noted.

“In AIBA rules, there is provision for protests, but now with the Task Force, they don’t allow that, and that’s actually the first thing they told us during the technical meeting.

“We just have to take it and move on…it’s so sad and upsetting that there’s no avenue for protests and there’s nothing you can do… In fact if I try protesting, it might get me banned so we just have to take it within our stride and move on.

“But all these judges are working to the whims of the Task Force. Everybody is scared, especially the Moroccan judge. Perhaps he was trying to show that he was not favouring an African boxer… They need to fix the criteria.”

For neutrals watching Saturday’s fight at the Kokugikan Arena, which is considered the spiritual home of sumo wrestling, Japan’s national sport, Okoth was a clear winner.

After a cautious first round, the Kenya Defence Forces soldier was more aggressive in the second landing a combination of punches on his opponent before attacking more in the final round.

But he accepted defeat with grace.

“I knew I had won the game but since they have made their decision, who am I to challenge them? I wish him well,” Okoth said before taking the shuttle back to the Olympic Village.

“I fought with confidence knowing I had won the game, especially the second round, because I started slowly in the first.

“I said to myself, why can’t I finish off the final round like the “Commander” that they call me… But what man plans, God may have different plans and I give thanks."

“It’s not the only fight… But my aim was to get an Olympic medal because that’s the only medal I don’t have in my collection. I have all the others.”

Perhaps hinting at retirement?

“My age won’t allow me to fight on to the next Olympic Games in Paris.

“But there’s the Commonwealth Games next year. I’ve seen I will certainly win the gold at the Commonwealth Games.”

Christine Ongare gets onto the ring on Sunday in Kenya’s second boxing match, up against Irish Magno of the Philippines in the flyweight (48-51 kilogrammes) from 11.15am Japan time (5.15am Kenyan time).