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Tokyo Olympics: rants, "theft" and "injustice" ... But what happened during the fight against Mourad Aliev?

2021-08-01T09:35:26.865Z


The last French boxer still in the running, Mourad Aliev dreamed of inviting himself to the semi-finals of the Games this Sunday. Disqualified in the incomprehension


A scent of scandal and a hurricane of frustration. These are obviously not the birthday gifts that Murad Aliev had dreamed of. Sunday noon in Tokyo, however, this is what the super heavyweight Lille (2.02 m, 102 kg) took right after his 26th birthday. The last French boxer still in the running had invested the Kokugikan Arena with dreams of a semi-final synonymous, in the worst case, with a bronze medal. Disqualified at the end of the second round of his fight against the Englishman Frazer Clarke, he left the temple of Tokyo sumo with an indescribable feeling of injustice. “It's a flight, quite simply, blows the tricolor, a good hour and a half after his fight. It only takes a referee from nowhere to screw up the dream of a lifetime, four years of preparation, the hope of a family ...I am disgusted! "

The tricolor boxer is down in temperature.

But he still cannot digest the events that shook the second quarter-final of the super heavyweights, shortly before 1:30 p.m. in Japan.

After winning the first round of the fight against the Englishman Frazer Clarke (3 judges to 2), Aliev manages the second act.

The melee is increasing, the head shocks too.

Normal in an opposition between a right-hander and a "false paw".

But four seconds from the end of the second round everything changes.

The American referee, Andy Mustacchio, disqualifies the French, guilty according to him of having opened the other arcade of the English with a head butt.

Read alsoJO from Tokyo: "I trained to box in the halls of a social hotel at age 7" ... Mourad Aliev, the force of destiny

"It's unfair, everyone saw that I won", yells the French.

Mad with rage, he spits out his mouthguard which he tries to kick away from the ring and cannot hold back his arms of honor towards the referee.

A lunar atmosphere sweeps over the Kokugikan.

In the stands, observers are incredulous, trying to understand the reasons for the tornado which is rising below.

In the ring, everyone understood.

Qualified, Clarke, the modest triumph, tries to go to greet the French.

Impossible.

Aliyev is angry, the feelings of injustice and incomprehension run too deep.

The French clan, at his side, is banned then leaps, shared, too, between anger, the need to prevent any deviation and the will to understand the incredible scenario that has just played out before their eyes.

"This guy fucked us up"

The discussions drag on, Clarke ends up leaving the ring, but the tension does not fall. Despite his anger, Aliev did not cross the line. Calm down, he shows his disapproval by going to sit in a corner of the ring. The scene is terrible. His face cut in several places says nothing of the fire that devours him but his body, anchored in the ring, hides nothing of his distress. For almost three long quarters of an hour, he will chomp on the brakes in silence, explaining to the officials who come to challenge him his incomprehension and the absurdity of the decision. “I won,” he breathes. It has been a long time since Frazer Clarke plunged into the bowels of the Kokugikan. When he walks past the microphones of the English press, the two arcades open,Anthony Joshua's training partner is not overwhelming.

“There are good referees and good officials here,” he commented, “we have to be confident in their decision. I think what they have done is correct. But the English colossus, still soaked in sweat, is obviously not at ease. Recalling his respect for Aliev and the Blues, he agrees that it is "obviously not how he saw this quarter-final" which ensures him bronze. "There is no animosity between us," he continues, referring to the words exchanged with Aliev after the fight. When he has calmed down, I will shake his hand again and wish him the best for the future. At the end, I just told him to calm down. At that moment, you no longer think with your head but with your heart, and the emotions take over. I know it's hard for him and he's angry, but I've been there,and the best thing to do is calm down and go back to the locker room. "

Mourad Aliev mad with rage THEMBA HADEBE

The tricolor clan does not see it like that.

Not immediately.

Not now.

Not like this.

If calm has returned, incomprehension still ruins everyone's bowels.

You have to talk to the referee, have an explanation, understand the motivation, the reasoning and the cruel decision.

"We can not go home like that, pleads John Dovi, the head of the France team, to the Australian Wayne Rose, head of referees.

He has to explain to us.

We agree with the rules, we always follow the rules… But there, we did not lose this fight, you know it, you saw it, this guy screwed us!

"

The exchange is cordial, on both sides everyone remains courteous, even if what emerges only amplifies the frustration. “The officials told us that they had reviewed the images and that the referee had made a mistake, assures Dominique Nato, the president of the French boxing federation. Unfortunately, they cannot reverse the decision, no regulation provides for this scenario. It's terrible for Mourad, he was so close to the medal! ” Asked about France 2, the president of the French Olympic committee Brigitte Henriques brought her “support” to Aliev and assured that she was in the process of putting together a file to challenge the referee's decision. An approach carried out by the legal department of the CNOSF, under the aegis of the head of the French delegation André-Pierre Goubert.

So close to saving the tricolor honor, the honor of his friends, all of whom left the competition prematurely, Mourad Aliev would have liked to remain for long minutes still sitting in the ring to express his incomprehension, his disgust for this injustice. “But they threatened to call the police to dislodge us, plague the French even more eaten away by this dark day. Is that the values ​​of Olympism? Being robbed in the face of the world? I have always fought against injustices, and today I have suffered one. I got robbed, it's a robbery. »A flight that will not change his desire to pursue his career. “But as a professional,” he says. Because in a message posted a few hours later on social networks, Aliev does not hide his disgust for the one to whom he has just given four years of his life.“Olympic boxing is crap,” he wrote. I am really disappointed, sad and disgusted. See you as a professional. A fed up with which he is not the only one to get annoyed. "That's why I stop training," said John Dovi, the French coach. I am ashamed for my discipline. It's so unfair, we leave so much influence there. I don't want to lose my health there! "

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2021-08-01

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