Olympics 'disgrace' as Ireland boxing loss slammed by champ - 'still confused about the decision'

Bernard Dunne has expressed his confusion over the controversial decision that led to Aoife O'Rourke's defeat in her Olympics last 16 bout against Poland's Elzbieta Wojcik.

Despite having previously won six fights against Wojcik, the Roscommon middleweight was taken aback by a surprising 3-2 split-decision loss after a chaotic fight in Paris on Wednesday evening.

Wojcik lost a point in the first round for holding and received several warnings for the same offence in the final round, but managed to avoid any further penalties .

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Dunne, a former WBA super bantamweight world champion and current high-performance director of the Irish Athletic Boxing Association (IABA), described the decision as "disgraceful" and criticized the referee's performance as "extremely poor".

"I don't know how they came to the decision that they did," he shared with RTE's Morning Ireland. "I think Aoife performed incredibly well, I thought she spoke incredibly well , but for me that was a disgraceful decision.

"On the scoring criteria they are using, one of them being competitiveness, unless this bout was a wrestling match, there wasn't so much competitiveness from the opponent and the referee I thought was extremely poor in managing it.

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"He gave a warning very early against Wojcik and then he just cautioned her for the remainder of the bout. I've the bout on here in the background and I'm still confused how they came to the decision ."

Despite the controversy, O'Rourke demonstrated her sportsmanship as she wished her opponent luck for the rest of the Games. She expressed her frustration but accepted the situation.

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"It gets frustrating but there's nothing I can do. It is what it is. She's a brilliant opponent . It's not our first time to meet, I knew it wasn't going to be an easy battle . Fair play to her and I hope she continues on in the competition."

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