Tokyo bronze medalist Aidan Walsh became the second Irish boxer after Dean Clancy to fall out of the Olympic draw after their first fight. The Belfast southpaw lost 4-0 on points to Frenchman Makam Traore in front of a partisan crowd in the 5,000 seater North Paris Arena after being warned and deducted a point by Korean referee Jongin Kim for holding.
Walsh easily won the first round on all the judge’s cards and was afterwards perplexed as to why the second round went 4-1 against him. The points deduction happened in round three with Traore winning the bout 29-27, 29-27, 28-28, 29-27, 29-27.
In a cagey fight the referee also told the boxers to engage more and although the crowd stayed relative quiet for the first round, every shot from Traore was cheered from the second round on building to a climax in round three.
“I was shocked when I heard (the scoring). I was just happy with the performance. I know I got a warning for holding,” said Walsh “I know it has been a thing over the last few months, but I have been doing that all my career, hitting and holding. It just seems to be over the past few months that they seem to be dampening down on it a wee bit. You usually get away with three or four warnings before you get a proper warning. I don’t know.”
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The Irish light heavyweight relied on landing single point shots and rarely engaged in brawling, keeping his distance the entire time and patiently picking off points and moving away. It worked well over the first three minutes although the referee told them to engage more. The second round entirely turned the fight with the judges going 4-1 in favour of the French boxer.
“I didn’t really know,” said the 27-year-old. “I felt when you usually win the first round clear you win the second round if you keep doing what you are doing.”
When he was warned in the third round and deducted a point, the contest drifted away. Walsh kept fighting his southpaw style of score and move with the German judge scoring the fight a draw at 28-28 and the other four siding with Traore.
“No commiserations to be honest. I am incredibly grateful to be here and I mean that. I have said that the whole time coming out here my aim isn’t a medal, my aim is to enjoy the process and I have enjoyed the first week of the Olympics village far more than the last journey through the last Olympics in Tokyo.
“It is an absolute privilege to be here. I done my best and my best wasn’t good enough today.”
