Glasgow: It took less than 10 minutes for one of the most anticipated boxing matches on the Commonwealth Games schedule to descend into chaos.
On Thursday morning (AEST), a large crowd gathered at the SEC Center to watch Uganda’s Aziz Abdul take on Englishman Damar Thomas in a super heavyweight bout.
Abdul is the grandson of the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who once described himself as the “King of Scotland” and had ties to the country.
Amin, a former heavyweight boxer, ruled Uganda for eight years. Human rights groups say around 500,000 people were killed and the country’s Asian population was displaced, and it also presided over the country’s economic collapse. He was forcibly expelled in 1979 and has never been tried for his crimes in an international court. He died in 2003 in Saudi Arabia.
Abdul drew media attention earlier this week by saying, “My grandfather’s achievements inspired me,” and said he wanted to be “the worst man in the Commonwealth, the worst man in Glasgow and the new King of Scotland”.
However, Abdul’s ambition to secure Commonwealth Gold was short-lived. He was disqualified in his match against Thomas during the third round for headbutting his opponent. His disqualification and the referee’s decision drew boos and jeers from his supporters in the crowd.
Speaking to the media after the aborted fight, Abdul became angry and began the media conference by pointing at a journalist in the scrum.
“I don’t like you,” he said, shaking his head at the reporter. He then spoke with a member of the Ugandan team, back and forth before fielding questions from reporters.
“The decision is not right,” he said when asked for his reaction to the disqualification, “the decision was one-sided.”
“All I can say about it is … I’m not happy with the decision.”
Abdul then referred to his opponent with the n-word, saying, “I’ll get him next time … somewhere in the future I’ll get him … if not now, sometime in the future, five years or two years or 10 years from now … I’ll show him that Aziz Ringo is a real fighter.”
When asked why the disqualification for headbutting was unfair, Abdul said it was not intentional and that his opponent had elbowed him numerous times during the fight, among other violations. “This is a trend among British fighters,” he said.
He said his English opponent was favored because he was on “home” soil and said he landed heavy punches on Thomas that didn’t count.
“Instead of counting, they deduct my points, they warn me,” he said. “I’m a black African, well… I know, he’s in his homeland.”
He questioned why officials were “afraid of this fight”.
Why can’t they let the fight continue, he said. “What was wrong with the fight?”
Asked specifically if he was saying the judges wanted Thomas to win, Abdul said “yes.”
“I don’t know [why]. Because he is at home, he is the man of the house.
Abdul ended the interview by saying “it was God’s plan” and repeatedly wished his opponent luck for the next match.
Thomas chose his words carefully in the media zone after the fight, with his minder telling reporters to “keep it about boxing”.
“Like I said, I’m done … done,” he said.
Asked by the masthead what he expected about the fight with Abdul, Thomas said “Literally it.
“I didn’t expect anything else.”
Thomas also said that he didn’t want the fight to “end like this” and that it “wasn’t the way he wanted it to be”.
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Hannah Kennelly is an award-winning sports reporter and Formula 1 writer at The Age.Connect via email.
