Controversy fails to faze Ogogo

2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Venue: Delhi, India Dates: 3-14 October 2010 Coverage: Comprehensive live coverage across BBC TV, radio, online, BBC Red Button, mobile and BBC iPlayer services. Find full coverage details here. And a full schedule of events here.

Ogogo beats favourite Singh

Lowestoft boxer Anthony Ogogo is remaining bullish after sealing a place in the middleweight gold medal match at the Commonwealth Games.

Ogogo, 21, defeated Indian Vijender Singh in controversial fashion, scoring all his points through penalties.

He told BBC Sport: "I saw my back hand scored at least four or five times. They weren't registering obviously.

"But I'm through to the final, I couldn't care less if 3,000 Indians are calling me a cheat."

Pre-competition favourite Singh, 24, went into the final round of the semi-final bout leading 3-0, but surrendered four points when he was penalised for holding on two separate occasions.

The Englishman defended for the remainder of the round to seal a 4-3 victory, to the frustration of many in the Delhi crowd.

"If he wasn't holding and roughing me up inside then I would have won even more comfortably," he added.

"He tried to nullify my strengths and at the end of the day that's illegal. You can't put your head down, you can't hold.

"I wanted to box, he didn't want to box, I'm through to the final and I'm going to bring a gold medal back to England hopefully."

Ogogo, who trains at the Triple A Club in Lowestoft, will face Northern Ireland's Eamonn O'Kane in Wednesday's middleweight gold medal fight.

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'Tired' Ogogo settles for silver

Page last updated at 15:26 GMT, Wednesday, 13 October 2010 16:26 UK Ogogo trains at the Triple A Club in LowestoftLowestoft's Anthony Ogogo says a series of tough fights cost him in his middleweight gold-medal bout with Northern Ireland's Eamonn O'Kane.

The 21-year-old overcame Youth Olympic winner Damien Hooper and world number one Vijender Singh before being outdone 16-4 by O'Kane to take silver.

He told BBC Sport: "I don't want to take anything away from my opponent but I felt tired in there.

"I've had four hard fights, I was by far on the hard side of the draw."

He added: "I haven't got to repeat who I beat to get here, but obviously some top kids.

"I think he'll [O'Kane] even admit he had an easier passageway here."

No disrespect to O'Kane but in two years time at the Olympics I'll be beating people like that, quite comfortably as well

The Suffolk fighter has vowed to bounce back from the disappointment, insisting he will aspire to become 'unbeatable' in the future.

"I want to be an Olympic champion, I've still got two years to go, I'm only 21, I'm still quite a physically immature 21-year-old," he said.

"No disrespect to O'Kane but in two years time at the Olympics I'll be beating people like that, quite comfortably as well.

"I'm halfway through the learning curve at the minute, in two years time I hope I can be near unbeatable."

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Ogogo leads home nations charge

2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
Venue: Delhi, India Dates: 3-14 October 2010 Coverage: Comprehensive live coverage across BBC TV, radio, online, BBC Red Button, mobile and BBC iPlayer services. Find full coverage details here. And a full schedule of events here.

Ogogo beats favourite Singh

Anthony Ogogo of England upset India's middleweight favourite Vijender Singh as the home nations dominated the boxing at the Commonwealth Games.

Ogogo looked on his way to an defeat as he trailed 3-0, despite appearing to have landed several punches.

But the referee twice handed Ogogo two penalty points in the final round as Singh tried to hold on for victory.

Northern Ireland enjoyed an especially impressive day as all five fighters made it through.

England also have five men into finals, Scotland two and Wales one.

Suranjoy Mayengbam of India ended the hopes of Pakistan's Haroon Khan with a convincing win in the flyweight semis.

Home nations dominate boxing semis

Mayengbam raced into a 6-0 lead in the first round and, despite Khan coming back into the fight, came through 9-3.

Khan is the younger brother of WBA champion Amir, but fighting for Pakistan after being snubbed by the England selectors.

And the 19-year-old feels he has made his mark by taking the bronze medal.

"I think I've proved my point to the selectors," said Khan. "There wasn't a British boxer in my category (in the semi-finals). I would love to see (the selectors) now. I should have won that medal for England.

"My main aim was to come here and stand on that podium. I've got the bronze. I can put it next to my brother's Olympic silver."

In the middleweight final, Ogogo will take on Eamonn O'Kane of Northern Ireland, who beat Welshman Keiran Harding.

"I found his Achilles heel," said Ogogo after beating Indian favourite Singh. "I've beaten him, I can't believe it. I'm very happy."

The Indian Boxing Federation launched an immediate protest which was rejected by the Games jury.

And Englishman Ogogo insisted he had not meant to offend by blowing kisses to the crowd amid a cacophony of boos following his victory.

Hard work worth it - Tom Stalker

"I thrive on the pressure - boxing is one of the most pressure sports, I thrive in that environment," he said. "No disrepect to the Indian crowd, they've shown nothing but hospitality to us. I wasn't taking the mickey, I blew a kiss because I wanted to thank them."

A host of gold medals are guaranteed for the home nations after more impressive performances on Monday.

The welterweight final will be contested by England's Callum Smith and Northern Ireland's Patrick Gallagher.

In the lightweight final Scotland's Josh Taylor will take on England's Tom Stalker as they won their semi-finals.

The light-heavyweight final pits Scotland's Callum Johnson against Northern Ireland's Thomas McCarthy.

And England's Simon Vallily benefited from a walkover to set up a heavyweight final against Northern Ireland's Steven Ward, who had a fine 6-1 win over Stephen Simmons of Scotland.

In addition, Paddy Barnes (Northern Ireland) is in the light-flyweight final, Sean McGoldrick (Wales) won at bantamweight and Bradley Saunders (England) will fight for light welterweight gold.

McGoldrick overjoyed to reach final

Saunders came through 9-7 against Louis Colin of Mauritius despite a nervous last round that saw the Englishman's healthy lead disappear alarmingly.

Barnes won his semi-final against India's Amandeep Singh with some sharp punching, easing to a 5-0 win.

He will fight Jafet Uutoni of Namibia in his Wednesday final, and said: "I'm over the moon. I could have thrown more punches but I didn't want to waste my energy for the final."

Newport 18-year-old McGoldrick pulled off a career-best victory over the bronze medallist at the Beijing Olympics, Bruno Julie of Mauritius.

He edged into an early lead and showed plenty of maturity to repel Julie's advances, winning by a single point.

Stalker coasted into an early 4-1 lead against India's Jai Bhagwan before being docked two points for a low blow, but ultimately showed his class to win 10-5.

Stalker said: "It was a great atmosphere out there and he sucked me into a slug-fest. But I listened to my coaches and my tactics came good."

Taylor completely dominated Tonga's Lomalito Moala, before Smith and Gallagher did it the hard way, each winning by a single point.

Liverpudlian Smith was level with Carl Hield of the Bahamas before scoring with a right hand with just three seconds left on the clock.

Johnson was clinical in defeating Wales's Jermaine Asare, while McCarthy became the third finalist from Northern Ireland after seeing off Kenya's Joshua Makonjio.

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