Olympic Boxing:Defeated Olympic finalist Sofya Ochigava was less than impressed by the manner of her 10-8 loss to newly-crowned champion Katie Taylor this afternoon and reiterated claims of a conspiracy this evening.
The Russian lightweight, who yesterday claimed the judges would favour Taylor in the second women's final of the day, said today that as far as she was concerned it was the same old story.
"As usual they tried their best to let the Irish win," she told reporters, "the judges as usual corrected the scores in her favour just as they did during the world championships to let Katie win," Ochigava told reporters through a translator. "What can I say now?"
It was third time in four meetings Taylor has beaten Ochigava, but the Wicklow woman, gracious in victory, said it was a close run thing and revealed she feared a countback. The result took so long to arrive after four punishing rounds at the ExCel Arena, Taylor admitted afterwards she had no idea which way the decision had gone.
"I didn’t know to be honest,” said the five-time world champion. “The last round was very close. She caught me with a few shots and I caught her with a few shots as well, but I didn't know what way the score-line went really.
“There was a bit of a delay near the end and I thought it had gone to a countback at one stage, and I was thinking that maybe if it went to a countback I wouldn't have won because I think maybe she threw more punches than me. But I definitely thought I landed the cleaner punches."
The boxers could not be separated after the first and the Russian went in one point ahead after the second, but Taylor insisted that she wasn’t concerned at that stage, before coming out to win the third 4-1 for 7-5 lead before the final round was scored level at 3-3.
"It was only one punch, only one point,” she said of the deficit after round two. “The last thing you do in that situation is panic because she's a good counter-puncher and if you start panicking that's when she'll pick you off. I just had to stay calm all the way throughout the fight. It's just a point really. You can easily get that back."
She was calm then, but not before the fight, when she was unable to eat because of "knot" in her gut.
"I was so nervous all day really. It’s the most nervous I've ever been for a fight naturally enough. I had a knot in my stomach all day but I tried to stay calm and composed throughout the whole day and tried to relax but it was hard to relax. I couldn't even eat all day to be honest.
“I was so nervous but when I got in there it was just like any other contest except for the crowd, it was amazing.”
A devout Christian, Taylor insisted the journey to this stage of a remarkable career could not have been accomplished alone.
"I dreamt of this moment so many times before and now I just can't believe the grace of God in my life right now,” she told RTÉ. “I just want to thank everyone for all their prayers. I said it yesterday, as well, with all the prayers over the last week. I'd be nothing without God.
“I’m here because of the grace of God in my life and because of Jesus in my life and without him I'd be nothing really. So praise God, thank you Jesus for such a great victory today."