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Murray: Beaten by home fighter
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Team GB's boxing coach Terry Edwards was livid after watching the first of his fighters go out of the Olympics as Joe Murray suffered a controversial 17-7 defeat against China's Yu Gu.
Murray had beaten the Chinese bantamweight at the World Championship quarter-finals in Chicago last November, but was on the wrong end of a heavy loss at the Beijing Workers' Gym.
Murray fell behind early as Gu was the busier fighter in front of a boisterous home following, as the home man took a 4-0 lead after the first round.
As the fight progressed the Briton seemed to be denied several points for clear shots landed on his opponent which, although it may have not affected the outcome, would have certainly made it a closer contest.
The 21-year-old was forced to chase Gu in the latter stages as the Chinese fighter protected his lead, and after the fight was over Edwards could not hide his disappointment in the scoring.
Generous
"I thought they were very generous to the Chinese," he said.
"You expect a slight bias but you come to the Olympic Games and expect a level playing field.
"Joe didn't box the best I've seen him but the scoring makes a difference and the tactics had to be changed because of the scoring.
"Everything the Chinese guy touched, they pressed the button for him."
Manchester man Murray was himself disappointed with the judging for his contest, especially with the amount of holding he thought his opponent got away with.
"Two people can't hold or there would be no fight," said Murray.
"He has to pick one or the other. He picked the Chinese kid but because it was in his back yard, had to take two points off me as well.
"I was hitting him cleanly and they still weren't giving me points. They let him have it his own way.
"The only way I could win was not to let him touch gloves on me."
