Joshua gets a gift decision!!

[ryanman]

I can't see that. It was close, and forgive the Cuban pun, but no cigar.

Surely you didn't see Joshua winning that fight?

Yes, like I said IMO it was close but Joshua won. Savon was no Felix, he was quick but inaccurate. Joshua landed more. The third round could have turned it round for the Cuban and I wouldn't have called it a robbery because it was close. The British gymnasts being demoted to bronze was a robbery after a Japanese dismount that was about as graceful as a polar bear on roller skates, but the boxing wasn't. Joshua can go up a gear in the next round and looks like the pro game will suit him.

This is why I'm glad I'm not a blind patriot and can judge a sport on the performances/merits of individual athletes regardless of where they're from. Saves me making posts like the one quoted above and looking like a complete pillock.

I like Joshua. He's a heavy in good shape which is more than can be said for 90% of heavyweights in this day and age. He'll suit the pro game perfectly and if it was a pro fight probably would have battered Savon. However, he boxed Joshua's head off in this contest.

Also your "Robbery" in gymnastics is explained here (it was also explained by the British commentators who mentioned it was the right call but hey..robbery ) :

"After Japanese star Kohei Uchimura fell during his pommel horse dismount, the British team moved into second place, and Ukraine took third. Japan, who had been in second all day, was shockingly out of the medals.

It didn't seem right, and that's because it wasn't. The judges made an error on Uchimura's score. As the British crowd danced and cheered for their country's first gymnastics team medal in 100 years, the Japanese delegation filed an inquiry.

Their party was short-lived. The gymnastics federation found they made a mistake in Uchimura's start value by not crediting him for his dismount. The half-point awarded to Uchimura made the difference. Japan moved into second, Great Britain into third, and Ukraine was left out of the medals."

To be fair... have you ever noticed where is previous Olympics the host countries' medal count suddenly surges from previous Olympics? One crass example was Spain during the 1992 games. I'm not discrediting the vast improvements made by the Spaniards in different sports, especially AFTER those Olympics..... but there was an obvious jump in medal count which at least in part has to be due to some of the "judging" events.

Using this same reasoning, expect a sudden surge in Brazil's medal count in the 2016 Olympics.

True.
But GB finished 4th in medal table at Beijing with 19 golds and give or take a couple we are looking about the same this time. But really I guess it helps countries that are strong in subjective sports more - gymnastics, diving etc (see China 200. Boxing is probably the only subjective sport that Britain are strong at so we won't get that 'boost'.