World's number one boxer Vijender Singh on Wednesday lashed out at Canadian referee Michael Summers and blamed him for his shocking exit from the boxing event in the semi-finals of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Vijender was beaten by England's Anthony Ogogo 4-3 despite the Englishman not winning a single point with his gloves but was beneficiary of some poor decisions by Summers.
Vijender was unfairly warned in the third and final round of his bout that saw him losing four points, which resulted in losing the match.
The Beijing Olympics bronze medalist said he solely blames the Canadian referee for his shock exit from the tournament.
"I blame the referee for my defeat because I feel the referee didn't judge fairly in my bout. The Canadian referee was unfair. I don't agree with his decisions because the England boxer also committed foul in the third round but the referee only penalized me," he said.
"If you see the last round of my bout, I was leading 3-0. My opponent without even getting a single punch made it to the final because of fouls so you can imagine how he has made it to the final. I don't think I made so many fouls and even if I had fouled they should have given me a warning," he added.
"The English boxer also committed some fouls and he should also have been penalized. The boxing rules say that you cannot penalize a boxer in the last 30 seconds of the third round but I got a warning in the last 16 seconds, which was not fair. I was twice penalized for clinching him but in fact it was the English boxer, who was clinching me and should have been punished," he added.
Vijender also blames his coaching staff and the Indian boxing federation for reacting late to the injustice committed on the Indian boxers.
"There were doubts on the scoring for the bouts of Jai Bhagwan, Dilbagh Singh and Akhil Kumar also. The scoring system was quite complicated because in some bouts the score reached as high as 20 while in some they were around two or three," Vijender said.
"Some decisions like the bout where Dinesh Kumar lost, his opponent scored in the last second of the match so we should have protested properly. Even the bout where Manpreet Singh lost we should have protested the referee's decision. If we would have protested at the start, then we would not have sent the problems that we saw in my match. The Indian officials only protested in my match but if they would have protested in the earlier matches, things would have been different in my bout.
"I was telling them that we should have protested earlier for the matches of Dinesh and Manpreet because the scoring system was not right in those bouts. If the coach had protested during the bout then things would have changed," he said.
However, Vijender was quick to downplay the incident and said it won't help dwelling on the past.
"I believe whatever has happened, has happened. Let's bury the past and looking forward to the future and concentrate on events like the Asian Games."
