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AIBA were on Irish revenge mission suggests Conlan

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Micheal Conlan believes his, and other Irish fighters’s, exit from the Olympics was a form of revenge for Irish judge Séamus Kelly speaking out about AIBA corruption before the games.

Kelly told the Guardian that he had been asked to cheat at the Arab Games in 2011 and was since pushed aside and questioned by the organisation after he reported it to the top brass.

The Belfast fighter, who exited the tournament in now-infamous and farcical fashion after his three rounds with Russian Vladimir Nikitin, believes his reverse may have been a form of pay back from the association for the embarrassment Kelly caused.

“Before the Olympics we got the bad feeling – with an ex-Irish judge who was part of AIBA came out and kind of outed them,” Conlan told Newstalk 106FM’s Off The Ball.

“We knew they were going to come down hard on us for him having his say.”

“He came out and told the truth and I think they were looking at us as if saying ‘oh we’ll get ye back’. I don’t think that helped us, or the Michael O’Reilly situation helped us.”

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Integral part of the Irish boxing community for over 13 years

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