 Murray lost to China's Gu Yu in the first round at the Beijing Olympics |
Manchester fighter Joe Murray vowed to quit amateur boxing after attacking the scoring in his defeat at the European Amateur Championships in Liverpool. The 21-year-old world featherweight bronze medallist, who also complained about the scoring at the Olympics, lost 16-3 to Ireland's David Oliver Joyce. "They said the scoring was bad in China but when you come back to your home country it's even worse," he said. "What's the point putting in the hard graft when you don't get a fair fight?" Joyce went down in the first round, but the referee ruled it as a slip and Murray did not score a point until the final round. Two of his three points came after his opponent was penalised for a low blow. "People like me want to stay amateur but I've been driven away," Murray continued.  | Joe might have got a few points from body shots but the result was fair Joyce's coach Dominic O'Rourke | "If I don't go professional now I'm going to have to quit. All I ask is to get in the ring and get a fair decision but it seems too much. "The kid looks worse than me. He got a cut on his nose and took so many body shots. But if the judges don't like you, they don't like you. "It was my dream to go to the Olympics then to come back and fight in my home country and move up a weight to prove I had what it takes. If I'd won today I'd have fought the Olympic champion next and that's what I wanted. "But it was as if there was a different scoring system for him. He started banging to the body and was scoring points straight away. I really didn't expect this in my home country but it's just what amateur boxing is." And Murray's coach Joe Gallagher added: "I thought Joe boxed brilliantly and that's it for him now. The scoring was an embarrassment. You're not going to see Joe wearing an amateur vest again." However, Joyce's coach Dominic O'Rourke said: "Joe might have got a few points from body shots but the result was fair. "David got a warning for a low blow in the last round and Joe could have stayed down and got David disqualified, but Joe showed his sportsmanship by getting up and going on, so I have no bad word to say about him."
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