Paddy Barnes left the Palace of Sport in Almaty yesterday with possible concussion following his defeat to Uzbekistan's Jasurbek Latipov.

The Belfast flyweight lost his rhythm entirely in a disjointed fight in which the referee had to untangle the two at regular intervals.

The official also warned both for use of the head in the second round but throughout the bout Barnes was complaining. It was most unlike the Olympic bronze medal winner, who left the arena furious and holding an ice pack to the side of his head.

"His head's okay. He's a bit of a headache. The doctors are looking at him," said Irish coach Billy Walsh. "A couple of head butts . . . then when he fell on the ground your man drove his knee into his forehead so he was very frustrated and he lost his focus. He lost his formation and he lost the plan. I think he may have lost compos mentis at the time so it was rough that happened and it changed the course of the contest."

Blurred vision
Barnes subsequently tweeted he had blurred vision for three rounds.

The judges awarded the fight unanimously to Latipov on a hard day for the Belfast trio. Much as Michael Conlan talked up his seamless move up to bantam, a mere four kilos, Vladimir Nikitin showed that muscle can count, when the Irish man appeared to run low on energy.

From presenting a moving target early on Conlan went toe-to-toe with the Russian and paid the price. He raised his arms at the bell thinking he had won but the experts thought differently and all three judges gave Latipov the decision.

While Conlan said he was happy with his performance, his body language told a story of crushing disappointment.

“I thought I did enough but the judges didn’t see it that way. F*** it!” he said. “I just didn’t get the result.”

Belfast’s Tommy McCarthy lost on a split decision following his quarter-final with Argentina’s Yamil Peralta.

“He was good,” said McCarthy. “He punched hard as well. I was so close . . . but he can punch . . . hard as hell.”