Azerbaijan was accused last year of bribing boxing's ruling amateur organization. And then this happened to Japanese boxer Satoshi Shimizu in his match against Azerbaijan's Magomed Abdulhamidov.
The Set-up:
Image by MURAD SEZER / Reuters
Satoshi Shimizu (in red above) headed into the second round of his Round of 16 match against Magomed Abdulhamidov down 4-2. Somehow, the second round — which appeared to me to be evenly matched — was scored for Abdulhamidov 8-3, meaning that Shimizu faced a sizable deficit, 12-5, that he'd have to erase in the third round alone. (Olympic boxing is scored by awarding a point for each cleanly landed blow.) His best chance to do this would be to force the ref to stop the fight, either by knockout or repeated knockdowns.
Knockdown 1
The first minute and 30 seconds of the round saw Shimizu begin to take control, but it was at the round's halfway point that momentum began undeniably to swing. After sustaining a number of blows, Abdulhamidov leaned into Shimizu and collapsed. This should've been a mandatory eight-count from the referee — Abdulhamidov clearly collapsed and dragged Shimizu down with him, illegally — but instead, the ref, just waves both men back up. If a boxer goes down for a count and doesn't rise by the end, it's considered a knockout; but even if he does, the count is still significant, as you'll see soon.
