Barnes loses light-fly semi-final

Irish light-flyweight Paddy Barnes will have to be content with a bronze medal in Beijing after losing to China's Zou Shiming in Friday's semi-finals.

The Chinese gold medal favourite claimed a comprehensive 15-0 win over the Belfast fighter.

Barnes chased Zou all over the ring in the first round but still found himself 2-0 down despite landing a great shot.

Zou picked Barnes off during the rest of the bout although the Irishman later dubbed the final margin a "disgrace".

In the immediate aftermath of his defeat, a furious Barnes claimed that he didn't "care about the bronze medal".

"They can keep it for all I care," added Barnes, who blasted the judging in the bout.

"We're in China so what do you expect"
Paddy Barnes

"They (the judges) should hang their heads in shame.

"There's no doubt I lost the fight by miles but not scoring a point?

"I'm getting drug tested here. The judges should be getting drug tested.

"But we're in China so what do you expect."

The 21-year-old Irishman came out fighting in the first round and he certainly looked as though he had landed one good shot on the Chinese fighter.

Zou picked up six more points in the second round although the brawling Barnes, once again, appeared to be unfortunate not to have got on the scoresheet.

It was more of the same in the third round at Zou racked up five more points and kept the increasingly ragged Barnes scoreless to increase the lead to 11-0.

The pattern continued in the closing round as the defending world champion progressed to the decider.

RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Beijing Boxing draws
Beijing 2008 - boxing
Irish Boxing
Guide to boxing - Wikipedia
Rules of Olympic boxing
Olympic boxing champions
Boxing tips - BBC Sport Academy
Have your say on boxing on 606
Boxing on the BBC Olympics Blog
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites